Opiate for the Masses

IN Regional Media | 08/05/2006

 B P Sanjay

Announcing populist measures during elections is common. However, when it includes a free color television set for every family notwithstanding the fine print distinction that it covers BPL families only it is grist for media analysis. The four crore plus electors in Tamil Nadu have lapped many promises in the past including this offer.  To the elite as one panelist on a show put it, it is a crude joke and added, but for the poor it matters.  

It is true that television has made deep inroads into this State and the demographic dispersion of media in India may well show the skewed balance in favour of South India. It is also true that television channels owned by both political combinations including the advantage bias that the DPA (Democratic Progressive Alliance) derives from the State-owned Doordarshan, foregrounds this medium as a site for political battles and agenda setting expose. News and current affairs programming may become a scholar’s delight to test theories of credibility in the days to come while the winners make their way to the Fort. The two main politically competing channels have never had it so good with their editorial teams working overtime to run down their opponents. Sun TV by any account has a lion share of the viewership with little more than 40 per cent viewership while its political competitor, Jaya TV, according to measurement figures has about five percent plus viewership. No wonder then it is the DMK that has made free color television a poll promise. Its sprawling media empire includes grip over distribution through its cable company and in due course the much sought after stake in DTH platform. If control over media is the only indicator of gaining power then DMK led alliance has an edge.

The promise of a free color television set needs to be peeled from its political and populist platform. The lure of cinema and the preoccupation with film and film-based content has characterized the staple fare. The entry of yet another "super star" into electoral fray has queered the pitch and his promises have had a chain like impact. Why free color television set is a question that we may want to address. 

If TAM figures are any indication then the State particularly the metro spends at least three hours more per week than the rest of the country watching television (about 19 hours plus as compared to 16 hours plus elsewhere). The economics of providing free color television sets is being debated and we may very soon have some figures. Economics apart there seems to be a street smart assumption that it is the way to go.

The notion that television provides for mindless entertainment and lulls viewers to a state of passivity has earned it epithets such as the opiate of the masses. Its narcotizing impact seen from a political perspective is enduring in the sense that the restlessness among the dispossessed can be lulled by television programmes that entertain and notionally empower the viewers through sensational stories that reinforce their moral stand on various issues and put the rich and famous in the dock. In fact the critical school of communication scholars would allude that one of the important reasons for consciously cultivating television, as an entertainment medium was to stem the restlessness among the otherwise vulnerable sections of the society who would have endorsed communism as an alternative to capitalism. The appellation consciousness industry is no doubt justified.

The nexus of the medium with cinema is obvious and cinema’s influence on politics in Tamil Nadu is enshrined in both pedestrian and scholarly folklore.  Although this folklore is accepted it has been pointed out that the nexus is not facile. Apprenticeship in politics is a precondition and it may be based on the edge that film stars derive because of their following.

If champions and advocates of the medium are to be believed then the free television scheme may indeed herald a new beginning. Its educative value has been celebrated and therefore if seen in conjunction with the noon meal scheme it may provide additional platform for the enthusiastic media group that is ushering in dedicated education channels. If the cynical amongst us argue that the "us and them" factor always positions television for the poor as educative and for others as entertaining the free CTV scheme would fulfill the entertainment function as well and in a way stem and contain the demand for other essential goods and services.

 The direction in which the entertainment industry dynamics is headed it is a matter of time before a free color television set becomes a marketing imperative. The logic is simple:  provide the medium, deliver the audience, invent new strategies for value added entertainment services and reap in the benefits of a nationwide free consumer base. Political ingenuity seems to have overtaken our management sleuths. There is also a flip but sensible side to the free television scheme in the State.  A free television minus cable and satellite connection does not make any sense in Tamil Nadu. Quite long ago Doordarshan’s base was eroded heralding the arrival of private network and the C&S homes.  Therefore, the Karunanidhi-backed,  Sun TV owned cable empire becomes a variable.

Their website’s link to CAS indicates a multiple pricing scheme for services with rates ranging from Rs. 200 plus per month to a little over one hundred rupees for basic services excluding the Rs. 72 that a consumer has to pay for FTA channels. So unless the smart among the voters demand (if they come to power) free cable connection as well, the empire may gain  regular income from cable subscription and correspondingly reap in ad revenue as well. Here the logic is simple: Provide a medium that informs what is needed and their track record in news and current affairs is by no means objective, entertain them lavishly with what they like film and film based content and serials. It is no coincidence that Sun TV has satellite, cable and internet rights for at least 70 percent of the movies in all the South Indian languages. Shrewd political expediency combined with media power in the true sense and we will be naïve if we dismiss it as mere populism.  

Recall the days when the noon meal scheme was announced. It was dismissed as populism. Now we have international pundits endorsing it as a factor in improving education and it is a near all India scheme. A free television and by extension a free computer as somebody else has announced may appear populist at present but if we are prepared to crystal gaze it might very well be a market reality. If the scale of economics theory is to be believed a non-branded sans hype color television set may cost as low as Rs 2000 or even less. When you weigh the political dividends it is going to pay initially and later the widening of the consumption base somebody in the DMK camp has flagged the issue albeit in a different context. In a lighter vein an essay on the viability of free color television may well be a media related question for aspirants to journalism and communication schools whose admission season is round the corner.