What happened to my TV ?

Before the era of liberalization, India was a sleepy nation which had few choices in terms of cars, scooters or Television (Ambassador, Bajaj Chetak or good old DD). As reforms kicked in, the standard of living has improved and so has the choices increased. As economists state as competition increases, competitiors have to differenitiate on quality and so it is better for customer. Right?

Wrong at least in Indian Television, I feel things have taken a turn for the worse. Earlier, we had Doordarshan which is played versatile role of entertainment with shows like Hum Log, Buniyaad, comedy like Flopshow, Dekh bhai Dekh and informative shows like Turning Point and Surabhi. The sheer range of programming was fantastic. True, DD benefited from a monopoly of being the only broadcaster in the country so the finest talent had only one platform to showcase their skills.

Circa 2010 :

We have 130+ news channels and several General Entertainment channels; definitely a viewer’s delight and advertisers’ misery on which TV channels and spots to target to maximize eyeballs. The focus has shifted to formula driven TV rather than being a creative platform to educate and entertain the audience.

General Entertainment Channels

One day, I surfed through Colors, Starplus, Sahara One, Zee TV, Sony and Imagine. Just shows about well dressed Saas-bahu soaps with dramatic music. So I got bored, I thought I will follow music channels, MTV, Channel V and UTV Bindass, what do I see young wannabe in reality shows who have learnt the choicest of expletives. You cannot follow much except the BEEP BEEP BEEP. Apparently market research by some firms have convinced target segment for GEC are only housewives or college going youth who want 2 mins of fame.

News Channels

New channels are no less, all of them will follow the exact same breaking news; A channel will claim an exclusive interview with Hillary Clinton, within 15 mins other channel will run an interview with the same celebrity; did people forget the definition of exclusivity? The Hindi channels keep running clips of film stars, wrestler Khali and TV stars who I don’t know at all. The hindi news channels are pathetic to say the least and the English media is pretentious and is ever cynical and prying on the negatives of each story. As a journalist, the focus is not bringing out facets of a story but only pick out the titillating crude aspects which have shock value. My most hated TV news anchor is Arnab Goswami, his modus operandi, get a large panel and he keeps talking all the time. He pushes his personal opinions down the viewers’ throat with smugness and screeching tone. He asks Lalit Modi “please touch your heart and tell us the truth”, ya right, Lalit is going to tell us the truth on prime time (Hopeless). The only news channel which has some credibility left is NDTV 24x7, Barkha, Dr Roy and Vikram Chandra still hold out some hope yet for Indian TV journalism.

Television today has become victim of TRP/TAM ratings syndrome, TV channel owners are ready to accept blindly the ratings/research of certain media agencies; thus they are appealing to the least common denominator of the audience; there are islands of viewers who’s sensibilities and interests which are going a begging. Today’s TV cannot hold a candle to the enduring icons of yesteryears like Jaspal Bhatti, Pankaj Kapoor or Girish Karnad or characters like Karamchand, Rajini or Mungrilal. Today its about hype and less about enduring legacies.

Hoping for a better Television viewing until then I remise about the good old days of DD when Fauji, Circus, Nukkad, Mahabharat, Giant Robot and Star Trek ruled the roost.