News,very filmi

“It (Khan Ka Salaam) was an interesting idea. Though it got hijacked by the Shiv Sena controversy,it did help us build a direct bridge with the prospective viewers of the film,” says a senior executive of Star Plus.

This is a full-grown phenomenon on television now—Bollywood content in general entertainment as well as news channels. “Exclusive” peeks into the script,the process of making a film,footage from the sets of the film,and interactions with stars are big on the small screen these days.

News channels,in fact,have been more enterprising in integrating Bollywood in their content. Plain-vanilla interviews with film stars are a thing of the past. News channels,these days,race against each other to be the media partners with film producers and this means “exclusive” access to the film content and its stars in exchange for free promotion of the film on the channel in various formats,such as news stories around the film in the regular news bulletins,special shows put together on the film with complete editorial support,interaction with film stars and also,talk shows where sometimes the entire crew of the film is invited.

The most interesting experiment has been of getting big stars to host shows or anchor news bulletins. It began with Abhishek Bachchan and Rani Mukherjee reading news on NDTV just before the release of their film Bunty Aur Bubbly,and very recently,Amitabh Bachchan not only anchored the editorial meeting at English news channel CNN-IBN,he also anchored their prime time bulletin where he freely spoke about his soon-to-be released film Rann.

The Looming Shadow

“Integration of film content into TV programming is an innovative way of achieving a two-pronged objective—creating interesting content for television viewers and giving the films a much-needed publicity at a scale and in an environment they can’t reach on their own,” says Sameer Rao,responsible for film and film content acquisition at Star. Rao is also general manager of Star Gold,the films channel in the Star bouquet.

According to a study by Delhi-based advocacy group Centre for Media Studies,national news channels such as Aaj Tak,Star News,CNN-IBN,NDTV 24X7,DD News and Zee News devoted more than 10 per cent of their total news time on films and entertainment-led content in 2009. This percentage would be higher if DD News,which has comparatively limited content of this variety,is pulled out.

An analysis by Mumbai-based television audience measurement agency TAM Media Research makes another interesting revelation: English news channels spend more time,or at least spent more time for the period under consideration,on such content than their Hindi counterparts. According to the analysis,in January,English news channels spent 17 per cent of their average news time on films and entertainment-led content,whereas Hindi channels devoted only 15 per cent of their time on such content.

“Television is the biggest platform for marketing films these days,” says Sanjay Bhutiani,former CEO of BR Films,who recently quit the job to set up his own film marketing company. “Especially because it offers a unique opportunity of mixing film content into TV programming. This makes the whole process of pitching (read selling) a film to a prospective viewer a lot more indirect and convincing,” he says. According to people in the industry,getting channels to lend their platforms for pushing their films is not difficult. “In fact,it’s the opposite. More than us,the channels are keen to source content from us,” says Shivani Prabhakar,marketing head,Dharma Productions,the company owned by popular film director and producer Karan Johar.

Business Case

Interestingly,film companies don’t charge television channels for sharing their “content” or stars with them. Likewise,channels don’t charge them anything for promoting their films. It is more of a symbiotic relationship,say industry players.

Television is a mass medium with maximum reach across the country that cuts across age and income groups. It is also one of the most expensive platforms to ride for advertisers. A 10-second advertising spot on a general entertainment channel during prime time,for instance,costs anywhere between Rs 50,000 and Rs 2 lakh,depending on the popularity of the channel and the show. A similar spot on an English news channel can set an advertiser back by around Rs 15,000-20,000 and on a Hindi news channel,it would cost anywhere between Rs 5,000 and Rs 10,000 during prime time.

“Film producers who are always stressed for funds can’t afford to splurge on expensive advertising and that explains why we would give them our content free,” says Prabhakar.

And why television channels easily relent to lend their premium slot to films is because Bollywood content helps them lure eyeballs,which,in return,help to rope in advertisers,the benefactors on whose shoulders their business rests.

“It’s a fact that Bollywood content brings in massive GRPs (gross rating points,the currency used to denote the viewership garnered by a particular channel over a period of time) and GRPs is what the advertisers want,” says Anurradha Prasad,chairman and managing director,BAG Films & Media Ltd,the company that runs Hindi news channel News24.

The most attractive aspect of such deals,however,is that the channels get free access to otherwise extremely expensive content and stars. “If invited independently,most big stars will charge several lakhs to maybe a crore to make a small appearance on a channel,” says Navin Shah,managing director,Entertainment Media Communications Solutions Worldwide Pvt Ltd,a Mumbai-based company specialising in film marketing. “Whereas in such deals,they happily oblige.”

The TAM analysis,in fact,shows that for 15 per cent of time spent on entertainment-based content,channels got 16 per cent viewership,whereas 13 per cent of politics generated an equal amount of viewership.

“It is an innovative way of giving viewers the content that interests them. We call it VIP or viewer interest programming. You cannot expect channels not to innovate in the current market environment,” says Rajdeep Sardesai,editor-in-chief,CNN-IBN.

Conflict of Interest

Even as the channels talk about business compulsions,independent observers argue that embedding content with commercial dimensions into regular programming and then,pitching it at unsuspecting viewers as innocuous entertainment is violative of their right to neutral information.

“A film,at the end of the day,is a commercial venture. Even if there is no monetary exchange in this exercise,there is a strong commercial interest involved in this. Film-makers are trying to woo audiences whereas TV channels are trying to attract advertisers,” says Vibodh Parthasarthi,a senior faculty member of the Centre for Culture,Media and Governance at the Jamia Millia Islamia in New Delhi.

Dr Vartika Nanda,head of journalism department at the Lady Shri Ram College in New Delhi,argues that in the case of news channels,besides amounting to trivialisation,such content also results in building an opinion in favour of the film,which is essentially a money-making venture. “In case of advertising,the viewer knows she is being wooed to make a purchase decision whereas here,there are no such disclosures.”

The most visible disclosure missing in the exercise is that of the relationship between film producers and the television channels. Shah Rukh’s MNIK,for instance,is being distributed by Fox Studios,the film production and distribution company owned by Rupert Murdoch who also owns Star Network,the parent to Star Plus and the partial owner of Star News. Likewise,many producers such as The Indian Film Company and UTV Software Communications own a varied network of channels,including news channels.

“This is an unholy arrangement,” says Nanda.

Channels refute these allegations. “Such opportunities are open for everyone,” says Rameet Singh Arora,head of marketing,Colors,the general entertainment channel owned by Viacom18,the joint venture between the US-based media conglomerate Viacom Inc and homegrown diversified media group Network18. Network 18 is one of the largest news broadcasters in the country with channels such as CNN-IBN in its bouquet.

Colors recently invited Arshad Warsi and Vidya Balan,the leading star of the latest film Ishqiya,to participate in its new big-ticket show Bing National Night. The show is hosted by Bachchan junior.

Dismissing charges of dumbing down news,G. Krishnan,executive director and CEO,TV Today Network,says,“The definition of news has changed. There is a definite shift in the viewer preference from news on politics to sports and entertainment news. This doesn’t mean there is trivialisation of news.”

It happens only in India

While celebrating the evolving relationship between film-makers and TV operators,people in the business themselves acknowledge that such experiments cannot be even thought of in more evolved markets such as the US and UK.

Prabhakar of Dharma Productions,for instance,admits that Hollywood films “can’t even expect an NBC to get their stars to come to their studio for a question and answer session or to host some show. No channel would do this for a film even if it had 10 Tom Cruises in it.”

“India is an evolving market,so there are a lot of experiments happening here. In the US,or the UK,it is definitely not possible,” says Star’s Rao.

Yet,with the competition to grab eyeballs getting more and more fierce and the lack of proper regulatory environment giving enterprising broadcasters enough room to push the envelope,this trend is only expected to intensify in the near future.