It's a moment of truth, not TRP

First thing that went through my mind when a live newsanchor from NDTV 24x7 called for a general soundbyte on how there was no electricity across Mumbai Monday morning October 12 was Whys this even news for the rest of India Surely the guy in Meghalaya will wonder so what Mumbai will care But then there is citywide power outage so no TV to switch on for this audience And no television rating points TRPs to get from it anywayYes were all allowed momentary lapses of cynicism But the fact also is that Meghalaya or the entire NorthEast of India never gets covered on national TV news because their viewership profile does not fit into the metric of TRPs that define whats news Given the money that pours in from advertisers are based on these numbersFullon crews of HindiEnglish news stations in Noida and Mumbai therefore hardly stepping beyond a 20 km radius plan wall to wall coveragespins on issues mdash from Delhi politics to ArushiSushant deaths mdash hoping it would somehow be deemed of national significanceEach channel essentially eyes the other making politics and media two industries where competition furthers sameness with inevitably an outlier driving the rest into a particular direction mdash which is pataal lok for the most partIndias newspapers despite their own limitations have historically unified this country through varied news views better Aware of their role youll notice they even hold mastheadstitles that arent cityspecific unlike their American counterparts New York Times Washington Post Chicago Sun Times San Francisco ChroniclehellipThough we also associate certain Indian cities with their loved legacy dailies mdash say The Hindu in Chennai The Telegraph in Kolkata midday after ToI in Mumbai if you may But no lay reader I know cares for their readership numbersposition or of any preferred website so long as they like its contentTV viewership numbers with its weekly Thursday TRP charts operate more like Bollywood boxoffice Because they belong to showbusiness Over 90 per cent of TRPs gauged from around 45000 homes nationwide go to general entertainment channels GECs and movies on TVLeaving news usually trundling at a distant third garnering around 8 per cent viewers Of which over half is among various regional languages the rest Hindi Sample size therefore that determines ratings for showsexclusives on news channels are so low that 700 homes can stand in for 80 crore potential viewers plus adrevenues thereof in a scarilyirreversibly 100 per cent advertising modelA fix here or there in content or even the insignificant datasurvey could make or break a news channel altogether mdash shrinking staff ignoring important news shutting down bureaus zero travelbudgets for anywhere outside NoidaMumbaiThis is why for the past two decades you may have read about news channels being at war with each other mdash simultaneously questioning the authenticity of TRPs I havent heard of GECsmovie channels do the same mdash while people meters are the same for all GEC ratings also dont mismatch so much with their hits online unlike newsLatest was Republic TV being accused of fixing data allegedly paying off R500 a month to supposedly classified homes with people meters so they claim to watch Republic TV The R500 a month would not cover their therapists fee if they really did watch that channel for too longWhich is the bigger crisis The fact that utter nonsense mdash from chase sequences to meme material mdash is peddled as news to reflect thereafter that this is what people according to TRPs want Charts on Thursdays confirm Circus continuesWho gets hit Since its hard for such a commercially vulnerable industry to take on the really powerful they direct hate their essential USP at all kinds of folks mdash chiefly private citizens who cant hit back The Rhea Chakroborty case post actor Sushant Singh Rajputs death was a turning point in that regardLies that dont have two sides were yelled to drill murder into a suicide case for nightly debates and allday news to make weekly crores from claiming TRP numbers over a young mans inconceivably tragic demise Memory of the departed was played with along with reputations of many othersOn October 12 when the lights shortly came back in Mumbai a tubelight finally flickered in the film industry when 34 production houses and four trade unions slapped a defamation suit against two TV channels for running a relentless smear campaign against Bollywood for three months straightThese two channels were Times Now and Republic TV Because Bollywood evidently hadnt watched Hindi news to know what was going on there Viewership of all English channels put together is 1 per cent of all news which in turn is only 8 per cent of all TV viewershipDo the math Look at the perceived damage Lies cant be measured in TRPs right Who are TRPs for Businesses to gauge if theyd like to advertise on a channelUnless AI takes over would a brand openly associate with unfair media trials witchhunt hate speech communally divisive material lawcourt type final judgments cheap innuendoshellip If the answer is yes then the problem is not TRP At the core of the crap is the advertiserMayank Shekhar attempts to make sense of mass culture He tweets mayankw14Send your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individuals and dont represent those of the paperKeep scrolling to read more newsCatch up on all the latest Mumbai news crime news current affairs and a complete guide from food to things to do and events across Mumbai Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates MidDay is now on Telegram Click here to join our channel middayinfomedialtd and stay updated with the latest news