Tips For News Channels; Invest Well To Earn Well

Recent Development: NewsX has tightened up its belt and the channel is all set to revamp its presentation. It has roped in some of the industry veterans on the top level positions.

Rahul Kulshreshtha has been appointed as Consultant for Technical Operations. Shamya DasGupta has been roped in as Sports Editor. He moves from Headlines Today where he was Sports Editor. Monica Malik joins as Executive Producer. She comes here from NDTV where she was Senior News Producer. Sukarno Sen has been brought in as Bureau Chief in Kolkata.

Nitin Sukhija has joined the Mumbai bureau of the channel as Entertainment and Lifestyle Editor. His last assignment was with IBN 7 as Entertainment Editor.

Rahul Kulshreshta spoke to Rajat Arora of BestMediaInfo.com on this latest development.

Kulshrestha earlier had his stint with TV Today where was responsible for setting up the state-of-the-art infrastructure for production & transmission of all group channels. After this he moved to Triveni media LTD to serve as the CEO of Voice of India bouquet of channels.

He's also the founder of WIDE ANGLE FILMS, better known for producing some award winning corporate films and commercials for leading advertising agencies like Lintas, Ulka Advtg and HTA. He's currently the CEO of Wide Angle Technologies; the technology arm of Wide Angle Films.

Here are the excerpts from the conversation:

Q) How do you take your newly built association with NewsX, will it be an opportunity or challenge?

For me any opportunity is a challenge and any challenge is an opportunity! I am sure that the association with NewsX will be an enriching one. It is always a bigger challenge to redo a running infrastructure as compared to a new startup operation.

Q) Please elaborate your responsibility as a consultant for technical operations.

Wide Angle Technologies has already done a detailed technical & operational audit for NewsX. In the current assignment, I will advise and assist NewsX in implementing the recommendations of our report.

Q) You possess a versatile experience both in production and technical expertise. You started from production and are now known as a technology veteran. How do you take this new recognition?

My strength lies in my analytical and problem solving skills as well as the ability to constantly innovate the technology platform. Because of my strong production background I am able to provide technology solutions that are very user-friendly and cost effective. The keyword for me has always been user friendly. This is where I am able to benefit my clients.

Q) What are the important areas you would like to focus upon within NewsX?

The main focus area would be streamlining the workflow and considerably reducing the OPEX costs through various measures.

Q) Many news channels were launched in past couple of years, but most of them failed to make any mark, As an industry veteran what reason do you see that they dint click?

In my opinion, News channels have a bright future especially in the regional markets. To answer your point, failures could be due to various reasons. The editorial content being a major factor. Each channel has to have its own USP, whereas most of channels are just following each other & not being able to make their presence felt. Distribution costs are so high that penetration could be a problem if not tackled properly, resulting in low viewership.

Besides the editorial content, another factor for any news channel to succeed is to keep a tight control on recurring operational expenses. Promoters tend to cut costs during the purchase process which does reduce the one time CAPEX but ends up increasing the OPEX, which is the running cost. That also hurts the organization.

The promoters must understand that the returns in this business are not immediate. There is a gestation period of at least 2.5 to 3 years. In this period, the business needs to be funded. A lot of channel promoters expect that once the channel has launched, the cash registers will start ringing. This does not happen at all.

Q) What about Technology, Does technology also play a part?

Yes off course technology plays a major role. If the right kind of workflow is adopted & accordingly the infrastructure is built, it will have a direct bearing on the OPEX in terms of manpower requirement & deployment. There are channels who have invested 40-60 crores but the workflow implementation is lacking due to which the staff requirement goes up drastically resulting in unnecessary OPEX expense. The main aspect of technology is the workflow design. The equipment decisions must be taken only based on that workflow & I have seen a lot of channels making mistakes in this aspect.

Info@BestMediaInfo.com