The business behind the stories

Ever wondered why one of your favourite shows on television just disappears abruptly? Well, I have. There have been numerous occasions when a particular show I like or I am really fond of, suddenly happens to be the top choices for the channel custodians to take it ‘off-air’.

I remember years back, as a college student who was studying mass media, I was awestruck with the quality of content and production that YRF Television shows had. Top quality production, some unusual stories were factors that stimulated the desire in me; to watch shows like Powder, Mahi Way, Rishta.com, Khotey Sikkey and Kismat among others. These, along with others were launched around the same time and were ‘taken off air’ with 5 -6 months of their launches. Apart from me, I know a

lot of other people who were appreciative of these shows and also went on to say, ‘Yeh hona chahiye TV entertainment ka future’. Alas! This did not happen for reason best known to the channels and the production house. But then I was told that ‘TRP’s nahi hai toh show nahi chal sakta’. The statement in a way was cemented in my mind, only because I was unable to comprehend and correlate this statement to the show ending abruptly.

As a die-heart romantic college student, I unabashedly was proud of watching the ‘not-so-brainy’ shows with a good looking lead pair romancing in every place possible; this show too, taken off-air. My friend and I were avid viewers of a lot of docudramas and similar television series. They end unexpectedly leaving viewers like us whining for more.

Years later, I begin learning words / terms like low TRP, high production cost, cost-cutting, change in time-band, altering prime-time slots etc. Imagine a bag full of things you don’t know, being thrown at you. I felt the same, a bag full of jargons coming my way. It took me a while to; firstly understand the terminology and then relate it to the media scenario that was around me. I am still in the nascent stage of my understanding.

I wonder why is it difficult for people like me and my friends to understand and comprehend such ‘high fundoo’ media jargons. Well, books did teach us some of that in our college days when we studied mass media; but in a large way is off-sync with the ground reality. In reality, a television show goes beyond the story I or my friends like; a lot of number crunching, data tallying and money management. But how do I, as a new entrant in the industry and also as basic audience know this?

Shouldn’t there be some way of enhancing our knowledge in all these matters? Can’t there be a way to elucidate the business behind the stories we see on television to people like me or my friends?

This platform has given us things we have never asked for. But now, can this much loved medium give us the ‘behind the scenes’ of the medium? I think it can; but we don’t know when and how...By Aarushi Sharma, Fresher at a Media Company