'The no-confidence motion against the UPA government last month gave Lok Sabha TV's ratings the much required boost as well as an opportunity to rake in money by sharing its feed with privately run satellite news channels.
Indiantelevision.com's Anushree Bhattacharyya caught up with Lok Sabha TV CEO Suneet Tandon to find out more on his plans for the channel. Interestingly, Tandon was elevated as CEO less than a week before the crucial vote. He was earlier the channel's executive director-marketing.
Excerpts:
How has the channel fared in the two years of its existence? What are major changes that have taken place?
There are channels that spend large amounts on advertising and marketing. We have not gone that route, yet we have carved out our very own position. All this has happened primarily due to the coverage of Lok Sabha sessions as well as other programmes like debates, discussion and documentaries. |
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What is the composition of Lok Sabha TV? Apart from Somnath Chatterjee (whose brainchild the channel is), who are members of its governing body? |
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How much investment has been made into Lok Sabha TV? |
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The channel has to depend on the audio-visual unit of the Lok Sabha secretariat for its expenses and infrastructure. Do you face any constraints in funding since you do not have a business model as such? |
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How many hours of feed were sold by Lok Sabha TV for the two days (during the Trust Vote)? How was the business on these two days for the channel?
We are using the same rates used by DD. Apart from charging Rs 1 mn beyond every five minutes of feed, there is also a provision for a one-time payment. For the one-time payment, a news channel has to pay Rs 3 mn in advance and can use the feed for any three important events, which makes it Rs 1 mn for every event. |
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Since it's all about garnering TRPs, how does a channel like Lok Sabha TV manage to catch the attention of viewers? |
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Do you keep an eye on the ratings of Lok Sabha TV? Are the ratings satisfying enough? |
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The channel's viewership soared on 21 and 22 July. Do you feel that Lok Sabha would have been able to garner more ratings if you had not shared the feeds? |
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Apart from covering the Lok Sabha, what else does the channel concentrate on? |
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At any point of time, have any member of the Advisory Council or the Speaker shown an apprehension on maintaining balance while covering any session? |
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In terms of programming, what are the changes that you would like to bring about? |
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Though there is a website dedicated to Lok Sabha, there is no online property for the channel. Any plans to develop a dedicated web portal for Lok Sabha TV? |
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What lies ahead for Lok Sabha TV? Technically, we are already at power with any other channel. Our visual quality is as good as any other channel. Yes, we would definitely like to have more interesting programmes and would also like to increase our scope of operation. |