Media - From Medium to “high”

With every advent or upgrade in the communication platforms, there is always an upheaval which results in major overhaul/relook of the existing setup. Something that every sector goes through in case of major disruptions. The television industry, which was once known as the primary source of news and restricted source of entertainment, witnessed a boom in the 90’s with the advent of satellite channels that fed on movies and movie related programs, fueling their exponential growth. With the introduction of 24/7 news channels, anything and everything became some news. When political parties decided to wade into the tv channel business, they started off with dummy channels that played out of license or free to air movies, depending on the clout of the party and soon they realized the clout of news channels and every party with a symbol or not, started their own news channel. Nowadays, it has led to a new forum whose primary job is to filter out fake news from original!! Amidst all these noise and nuisance polluting the air waves in the name of entertainment and infotainment, slowly and steadily OTT platforms are making their presence felt. If I take my own case as example, without even realizing, I’ve been following YouTube interviews as a steady course of diet for last 6 months at least!! Rather than the shouting games in the name of panel discussions that are purported by news media, the individual one-one interviews at least offer a semblance of opinion, even if it may be one sided at best. The number of YouTube channels that have mushroomed in the last couple of years are giving the mainstream news agencies a run for their ad money. Any news anchor who has made their fame on a given news channel or via a hit program, immediately start their own YouTube channel or become independent news merchants. News creation has become the hot skill in the media industry and anyone who can put a good spin, churning out sensation out of nothing, is in hot demand. The alarming trend for media houses who have bet heavily on TV channels would be the increasing clout of OTT platforms. When Amazon Prime won the right to host IND NZ series, I felt it was very odd to watch a 6-to-7-hour match on mobile. For those who had the TV app it is a different story though. But it made me realize that, for the same package that I had subscribed, I am getting a relay that is of HD quality, for which I would’ve had to pay a hefty fee had it been on TV!! The discrimination between SD and HD quality of relay is negated in one move and it immediately comes with a bouquet of other features that were already provided by the app! When Sony won the rights for another sports event with JIO winning the Football WC telecast being the crown jewel of the example, the gauntlet is well and truly laid for the TV channels. Quite possibly, the next BCCI sponsor could be Amazon or Netflix and we may be in for a ZEE5 or Disney Hotstar IPL in coming year. From a cost perspective, with more and more service providers going for a bouquet of services, wonder how long the tv channels can sustain the attacks from OTT. As it is, they’ve opened a small gateway for small time movie producers who otherwise would’ve been at the mercy of theater owners, pining only after mega star’s release, also for creative content that otherwise wouldn’t have seen a release on any screen. With them eating into the sports field as well, the war is truly on. The winner in the interim would be the customers who for a small amount of time can enjoy reduced costs and better services. But pretty soon, it may became a dog fight similar to the one between the tv channels, with the battleground shifting from your living room to your mobile case.