Credibility, Strategy & Technology: Times Now success Mantras

Arnab Goswami, President – News and Editor-in-Chief, Times Now & ET Now in a freewheeling chat reflected upon a number of relevant issues – key among them being Bihar Assembly elections, Social Media, Digital News and TV news, Importance of rural market and vibrant young generation of India. He discussed the effort, strategies and tools pertaining to comprehensive Bihar election coverage and exit polls.

Credibility of Times Now
Arnab Goswami stressed upon the fact that success of a news channel largely depends on its credibility. He attributed the huge success enjoyed by Times Now during elections and otherwise to the credibility factor. He said, “In the last general elections, we were miles ahead of the competition with about 50% market share. Typically, we found out that during an election our viewership goes higher; for us viewership during elections is the indicator of credibility that the channel enjoys.”

Strategy & Technology
He also stated that right strategy and correct use of technology too work towards enhancing a news channel’s consumption. He said, “Our coverage is completely different from the old fashioned coverage done by some other channels. We have also introduced various technologies, which was never done before on television. On the 16th of May, we were the first channel who called the number for Narendra Modi when the number were still beginning to come on other channels. So this explains that we were quite different and were very quick to tell the election results.”

The channel, on occasion, uses hologram technique for live interaction. Arnab expressed, “We used hologram technique to bring our reporters live from different locations. This was a big success. Some people called it to be as stunt but for us it was all about bringing a live experience for our viewers.”

Arnab on Social Media
Arnab reflected on the importance of a strong social media presence in today’s time and age. While expressing his thoughts on joining twitter, he said that they have an exclusive partnership with Twitter. He would be doing a show on periscope for Twitter. This will be the first time when a news channel will be doing a show of this kind.
The hashtags that are associated with each special show of Arnab Goswami help him to go through the conversations on Twitter and proves to have a higher degree of importance. These conversations help him to know about the opinions of the viewers that maybe either in agreement or disagreement. The hashtags are chosen carefully with special subjects to give a unique identity to his show and the channel.

Digital not yet dominant
When asked about digital dominating television news Arnab explained that for the next ten years Television will lead and digital will only follow. He stated that there was need for strategies to edit content for digital audience to make them more appealing and short as per their preference.
As to what should be the main objective of digital, Arnab said, “I am not looking at digital in terms of monetisation. It is about expanding my audience.it is basically an experiment and investment for the future. I have a large following of people in the forces that follow Newshour on digital formats because they may not get to watch the show on television. The logic of news on digital is different from television. I learn things from the younger generation. I’m guided by digital. It is a fantastic learning experience. I learn new things by working with people on digital. Why focus on monetisation? Focus on content. We may put high quality content only on digital four to five years from now.”

Rural presence
The rural market and the viewership for the show Newshour in rural India has amazed Arnab Goswami. He said, “I have come to the conclusion that English is the connector language that connects all the cities in India and breaks the myth that English language is only for people residing in urban areas.”

Year that was
2015 has been an excellent year for Times Now. Arnab Goswami attributed it to four key factors. First, Newshour has crossed 90% channel share several times this year and secondly Times Now has crossed 50% channels share several times. Thirdly, all this was possible despite other channels trying to change their names which proved unbeneficial to them. The final reason is that Times Now has done it in a market where there is no number two today because everybody is number two except Times Now. The channel has also introduced one big innovation this year in form of national debate.

Arnab also expressed his gratitude for all the advertisers of his show and about the future plans for ET Now to become the leading channel in terms of ratings as well as from the perspective of being the first business channel.