“Use of digital has given News18 India an additional advantage”

News channels have their hands full with the ongoing Assembly elections across India. News18 India has been gaining traction with its election-focussed programming. The channel was rebranded a few months back and had revamped its content line-up as well.

In conversation with Adgully, Prabal Pratap Singh, Consulting Editor, News18 India, speaks about the channel’s growth strategy, leveraging digital for gaining competitive advantage, coverage of the ongoing Assembly elections and more. Excerpts: 

Digital’s influence on print has been all pervasive. How is digital redefining the broadcast news space?
We have been using digital to promote our programmes in different forums; our anchors and reporters use Facebook Live and Twitter for real-time news updates. For our debate shows such as ‘Bhaiyyaji Kahin’, the anchor first does a Facebook Live and then the programme is streamed on Facebook as well. So the anchors promote the programmes and you can also catch them on various social media platforms. Digital has given us an additional advantage as far as showcasing our programmes are concerned. 

What are the key factors driving News18 India’s strategy to maintain its competitive advantage?
Firstly, we have introduced new programmes and secondly, we are leveraging ETV, which is omnipresent in North India. We are leveraging our coverage on ETV as sole library. We are using our resources to beat our competition. If you look at our four programmes which are there on prime time, the numbers are there to indicate that our strategy is ahead in every sense. Like ‘Bhaiyyaji Kahin’ at 6 pm is giving us the numbers. Then we have two debate shows back to back at 7 pm and 8 pm. Both the shows are focussed on the big issues of the day. Then if you look at our 9 pm show, ‘Sau Baat Ki Ek Baat’, it’s a new way of storytelling. Again, that has given us lot of eyeballs. 

With the coverage becoming so competitive, does authenticity get over-shadowed or take a backseat?
If you are not authentic, people won’t tune into you, you won’t be listened to by anyone. You will have to be authentic. Competitiveness doesn’t mean that you compromise on authenticity. Yes it is a competitive world, you have to innovate in various ways to showcase your programming to your viewers. But you don’t have to compromise on authenticity for that and I strictly don’t believe in this. 

What has been your strategy to cover the Assembly elections this time round? How different has it been from the previous coverage?
The strategy was simple. We introduced programming much ahead of others. Like our show, ‘Bhaiyyaji Kahin’, we introduced it in December, while other channels launched their election programming by mid-January when the elections were announced. In addition to this, in line with the show, my reporters and anchors travelled to different parts of Uttar Pradesh and in the second week itself it became very popular. Secondly, we rolled out our new show ‘Lapete Mein Netaji’, where the concept was that we had called various renowned Hasya Kavi from different parts of UP. They used to read all their poems and we used to make each representative from every political party sit in the programme. So, in all, we introduced programmes much ahead of the others, we introduced new shows. ‘Lapete Mein Netaji’ gained much popularity with our viewers. Thus, our strategy has given us good results and the numbers are for all to see. 

Please elaborate on the association with Gramener for this election season. How will it provide an edge to News18 India’s coverage?
We are the only Hindi channel that has associated with Gramener. We have provided them all the data of the 2009, 2012 and 2014 elections. It mentioned all the constituencies, which particular caste dominates where, what are the trends that will emerge. We have used Gramener to present to our viewers the different issues that will dominate the polls. It’s a new thing that we are doing and Gramener has helped us a lot. With the click of the mouse, my anchor can show to our viewers what is happening in the elections in various regions of UP across constituencies, castes, communities, contestants, political parties, trends and the winners. So this is how we are using Gramener and it has been of great advantage to us.