The future of television

“Cable in the form of fibre optic technology will integrate basic telephone services with TV and the home computer giving rise to a new generation of on-line interactive services forming information super-highways”

The launch of SABE TV, Sahara TV and B4U have met with minimal ratings, they have a long and hard way ahead. Channels like BBC World and CNN created locally produced bands for the first time in their history with UTV and NDTV becoming their most favored producers. UTV’s Hard Talk and Face to Face by Karan Thapar created waves with path breaking interviews of General Musharaf, Kapil Dev and others, Prannoy Roy’s Question Time India and Siddharth Basu’s excellent Mastermind are all successful adaptations of BBC formats.

The National channel Doordarshan has registered no growth in advertising revenues. It’s high rate structures threaten to kill the channel as producers who take the full risk of the programme are losing huge amounts of money on this channel. Prasar Bharati needs to take a look at the plight of the producers most of whom, like Cinevista, Adhikari Brothers, B.R.Chopra, Balaji Telefilms, Numero Uno and UTV have a long and loyal relationship with Doordarshan.
As for the future of television in India, one can’t say for sure because things keep changing . Our strategies, our plans, change almost every day. Something new happens every day. This is the joy and challenge of this powerful and wonderful medium.

We as producers of entertainment content MUST predict the future. When we create a programme today we need to know what our viewers will want tomorrow. Let’s look at some of the trends that we as producers need to be aware of.

Global Markets for Indian software.

Traditionally India has exported its feature films, now Indian software has been accepted all over the world, including South east Asia, South America, Africa, and even Romania and Russia. Today Zee TV, Sony and Star and other cable networks in the US and UK are strong and growing opportunities. Shanti for example played seven languages in six countries around the world is No.1 in Mauritius and Sri Lanka. The SINGLE most important trend is Convergence or the advent of telephony. Increased cable penetration from 35 per cent today to approx 50 per cent by 2002, allowing for internet access and telephony. Cable in the form of fibre optic technology will integrate basic telephone services with TV and the home computer giving rise to a new generation of on-line interactive services forming information super-highways. The differences between cell phones / TV sets and PCs will break down. Today UTV has launched Asia’s first internet channel on Singapore One - Singapore has wired up the whole city with a broadband interactive network., where you can watch your favorite “TV” programes on your PC - at your own time. Tomorrow you will be looking at news headlines on your cell phone! The consumer will be KING. He will decide when and where he wants to be entertained. He will even influence the very content creation itself. Television will help to launch a host of new industries
These include Retailing. Tele Shopping Network, our sister company, launched the first All India Home Shopping programme, viewed daily by 200 million people on Indian national television. This concept could be one of the largest revenue earners in an environment of scarce advertising rupees. Sports Television has the potential to promote and popularise a variety of sports, giving cricket fair competition. Bengal, for example, is passionate about football. News/Current Affairs and Business Channels that are essentially Indian have come into being. As India slowly becomes the focus of the worlds business leaders, Indians will demand more in-depth, more on-the-spot “live” current affairs programming which is essentially Indian in character and content.

Live programming: As a natural aftermath of sports and current affairs, the demand for live programming will grow substantially, constituting perhaps 50% of the total programming mix.

Music: Similarly television has revitalised the music industry by creating new viewing and listening habits. Hindi films songs are joined by equally popular non-film based music.

Children’s Television: This sadly neglected area will finally come into its own. Today we have Nickelodeon channel beaming into India. We also have bands of children’s programming across popular channels like Zee and Star. We have yet to see a local children’s channel

Education: The is possibly one of the biggest area just WAITING to happen! This will really take off when TV becomes interactive. But even as it is, I do believe TV is a highly accessible and amazing way to teach our chilren basic education. TV has a lot to still offer its viewers and it is upto us as providers of content to push forward with exciting and important changes in the industry that we have created.

Zarina Mehta, Director, UTV
(Concluded)