TV News - The bubble is bursting

India in the 90's saw the Dot com boom and it fizzled out. With the advent of IT in all industries including media was also a sufferer. But what hit most was the magazine business as extensive reporting was the accepted norm by the reader and parallel TV media was building and growing gradually. Late 90's also saw slew of channels across markets both English and regional. While magazines were also expensive compared to a daily newspaper hence it was an investment on the part of a reader.

With news channels mushrooming each day the the market started crowding and even the time space was always open for negotiation and with fierce competition prompted channel owners and promoters to sell the time at dirt cheap rates. Like any other business TV media also had to upgrade its facilities and stay in race. Not all could do this but few could, largely regional media could hardly sustain with obsolete technology.

Now English channels which has a meager viewership stood out as brands and they also upgraded their support systems to stay in race. In India it is regional TV which is popular compared to English merely because of localized efforts. These channels had so called celebrity anchors who had their "network" within Government circles used their "position" to get news which also became exclusive news breaks for their respective channels. Many anchors also found their way through Ministry of Defence and used Ministry's choppers/ helicopters to collect the news and show it to people at large. By this route they also became popular and also convinced the Government to give them civilian awards for news contribution which was indirect form of bribe to hide the sins of the Government.

Now these so called celebrity news anchors who have been in the news business for years found that the rug is slipping under their feet with online and social media evolving and growing in leaps and bounds. They knew that their survival was under threat as TV media is loosing its steam. To stay in race most of these news anchors started getting visible on social media too very often and since they have the access to their own video content started posting their shows with video links with their own content and observations. Now few also started writing their own books to make a living and also stay relevant.

Finally just to summarize TV media is slowly getting irrelevant while many were of the opinion that it is print media which will be first to fall. One of the important reasons of TV media going down is the content as there is no news but just views, debates and noise. The news factor is just lost, only videos, live streams unedited versions make it lot more chaotic and out of race. It doesn't connect with audience anymore.