“Bad news folks, and warm regards”— the media recession of 2008
IN Media Business | 2018-09-15
Shrinking advertising, more intrusive advertising, salary and job cuts, postponed launches, dropped supplements—revisiting how media houses and journalists were hit.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-08-23
The Tribune at Chandigarh has seen exits and transfers in recent weeks but now there is a counter narrative emerging which apprehensive staffers may not be prepared to believe. Sources say the rumour that more easing out of contract staff is on the cards is simply not true, and that that the exits..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-08-07
The Tribune, Chandigarh is laying off contract journalists. On August 6, some five people including outstation correspondents were asked to go with a month's pay in lieu of notice. They were promised that their dues would be cleared in a fortnight. ..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-07-18
Moneycontrol.com says that HT Media has reported a drop of 86 percent in its net profit for the June quarter to Rs 5.8 crore against Rs 41.5 crore reported by the firm during the same quarter of last year. In May this year however HT Media had reported over a two-fold increase..
When the Chief Minister is also a media owner…
IN Regional Media | 2018-07-16
…and the dept of information and public relations is the nodal agency for allocating state govt. advertising, some interesting patterns emerge. A Telangana case study.
Amateurish sting traps gullible media managements?
BY A HOOT COMMENT| IN MEDIA BUSINESS|26/05/2018 ?
That so many fell for this sting says a lot for the amorality that may have begun to pervade the media business.
DB Corp: Steaming ahead or floundering?
BY The Hoot’s ANALYST*| IN MEDIA BUSINESS |01/04/2018
DB Corp has had some misses but has been chugging along comfortably overall. However latest figures suggest improving profitability will get harder.
BusinessWorld teeters as wages go unpaid
IN MEDIA BUSINESS |08/05/2018
With a salary backlog of four months, the mood among BW journalists is grim, even as they hang on in hope of collecting past dues.
Chandrasekhar quits Republic board
IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |02/04/2018
Rajeev Chandrasekhar has resigned as a Board of Director from ARG Outlier Asainet News Private Limited in-order to ensure the neutrality of Republic TV as an apolitical media entity. His resignation was effective from 31st March 2018 and the decision was taken after his recent alignment with BJP and being elected for Rajyasabha under..
BY The Hoot’s ANALYST-AT-LARGE| IN MEDIA BUSINESS |28/01/2018
In the past five years TV Today has seen a sharp acceleration in revenue growth and profit margins.
Why media players are chasing regional audiences
BY SUNIL DHAVALA| IN REGIONAL MEDIA |29/12/2017
Everyone is offering news and services in regional languages because that is where the audiences are
Sun TV moves NCLT against Big TV
IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |23/12/2017
Sun TV Network has filed an insolvency petition against Anil Ambani’s Reliance Big TV in the National Company Law Tribunal Mumbai. Big TV’s DTH operation owes more than Rs 100 crore to leading broadcasters like Star India, ZEEL, Sony Pictures Networks India, TV18, Viacom18, Sun TV, and Discovery Communications India...
Sun TV: In search of the next big idea?
BY The Hoot’s ANALYST*| IN MEDIA BUSINESS |28/11/2017
Profitability has never been an issue for this Southern giant, but the growth rate of net profits has been coming down.
IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |09/11/2017
Television Post reports that NDTV’s standalone net loss has jumped 35% to Rs 17.92 crore for the 2nd quarter of FY ‘18 as against Rs 13.29 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal. It adds that revenue from operations has fallen 22.18%. The standalone result is of financials for the TV news..
Zee, HT, Sun, Network 18 linked to offshore havens
IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |07/11/2017
The second day's Paradise Papers revelations in the Indian Express link four major media companies with offshore havens. Transactions made by the Zee Group Hindustan Times Group the Sun Group, and Network 18 have been detailed, and a radio company owned for a short period by NDTV news, has been linked with Astro, the Malaysian company whose..
The rise and rise of Jagran Prakashan
BY The Hoot’s ANALYST*| IN MEDIA BUSINESS |16/09/2017
The company that publishes Dainik Jagran goes from strength to strength ten years after its 2006 IPO.
IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |05/09/2017
Now that Star has won the global television and digital rights for the Indian Premier League for the period 2018 to 2022, for a humongous Rs 16,347.5 crore, what happens to Dish TV's complaint to the Competition Commission of India? The DTH broadcaster had objected to Star participating in a bid for..
The BCCL empire—towering over the competition
BY The Hoot’s ANALYST-AT-LARGE| IN MEDIA BUSINESS |21/08/2017
BCCL has achieved this scale mainly through diversification into a variety of non-print media and ploughing its surplus cash into many venture-fund like investment bets.
IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |19/08/2017
The Times Group is persisting in its efforts to leverage the social media behaviour of its employees for the company's benefit. Newslaundry reports that the Group which began dictating terms to staff who were on Twitter and Facebook from 2014, has just given them guidelines which amount to saying journalists can’t..
How India became Facebook’s biggest market
BY JEFF JOSEPH PAUL KADICHEENI| IN DIGITAL MEDIA |16/08/2017
Facebook now has more active users in India than in the US, more than sixty per cent of them young males. But the numbers are yet to translate into revenue.
IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |02/08/2017
NDTV announced on its website that its digital revenues for quarter one were up 65 percent. It did not mention the company's consolidated after tax loss of Rs 22.01 crore in the same quarter. Nor the company's consolidated after tax loss of Rs 86.16 crore in FY 2016-17... ??
NDTV: A legal mountain to climb
BY The Hoot’s ANALYST*| IN MEDIA BUSINESS |31/07/2017
The strenuous legal defence mounted by NDTV against the IT Department’s claims of irregularities, could be prolonged.
Three-pronged attack says NDTV
IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS|27/07/2017
An NDTV statement on its website today says that the last 24 hours have seen new attacks on the company from the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate. These follow a demand from the IT department to pay Rs 429 crore in tax immediately. It claims that the CBI has sent..
Now SC says Wage Board pay for contract employees too!
BY PRASHANT REDDY THIKKAVARAPU| IN JUDGEMENTS |23/06/2017
Although the judgment has declined to find newspaper managements guilty of contempt, it has settled 4 questions of law which will have far reaching implications for journalists and newspapers in India.
Unravelling the tax travails of NDTV
BY The Hoot’s ANALYST*| IN MEDIA BUSINESS |22/06/2017
Does income in the books of a subsidiary count as profit accruing to the main company?
BY The Hoot’s ANALYST-AT-LARGE| IN MEDIA BUSINESS |02/06/2017
Modest growth, stagnant core business profitability, and poor shareholder returns combined could be the reasons for cost-cutting and streamlining its workforce.
Network 18 Part 1--Beginning with a bang...
BY AN ANALYST| IN MEDIA BUSINESS |13/05/2017
The saga of a media group that has had, in the last decade and a half, more ups and downs than a roller coaster in an amusement park. ??
Network 18 Part II---The restructuring game
BY AN ANALYST| IN MEDIA BUSINESS |13/05/2017
Why the promoters acquired control over an obscure non-banking company, pumped cash into it and set it up as the parent company holding investments in the media operations of the Group.
Network 18 Part III---Going under
BY AN ANALYST| IN MEDIA BUSINESS |13/05/2017
No amount of ‘restructuring’ could turn operations around. Soon a change in management and ownership control became the only feasible course of action. ??
Network 18 Part IV--- New owner, new broom
BY AN ANALYST| IN MEDIA BUSINESS |13/05/2017
The new owner has deep pockets, sees synergy with his mobile empire, and begins the salvage with a Rs 1000 crore write-off.
Zee Group: thriving despite print media losses
BY AN ANALYST| IN MEDIA BUSINESS |29/01/2017
General entertainment brings in the profits, News TV and distribution remain viable, DNA shows a modest cut in losses.
ABP Group: a tale of contrasts
BY ANALYST AT LARGE| IN MEDIA BUSINESS |10/04/2017
Print is profitable despite narrower margins than TV, the television business has a stockpile of past losses to wipe out.
Express Group: on solid turf after a turnaround
BY ANALYST AT LARGE| IN MEDIA BUSINESS |23/02/2017
After a bumpy four years, the group’s finances have hit a smooth stretch since 2015. Profits expand without help from one-offs.
Zee Group: thriving despite print media losses
BY AN ANALYST| IN MEDIA BUSINESS |29/01/2017
General entertainment brings in the profits, News TV and distribution remain viable, DNA shows a modest cut in losses.
HT Media grows in non-print areas
BY ANALYST-AT-LARGE, Research: VAISHNAVI BALA| IN MEDIA BUSINESS |08/06/2016
While the company’s profits came largely from print advertising, revenue growth has come from language, radio and digital.
“The government started to give up control”
BY AMAN MALIK| IN MEDIA BUSINESS |24/02/2016
Twenty five years after the 1991 liberalisation The Hoot interviews leading media business players on how it shaped India’s media explosion.
“Liberalisation allows you to play in a much bigger field”
BY AMAN MALIK| IN MEDIA BUSINESS |19/02/2016
Twenty five years after the 1991 liberalisation The Hoot interviews leading media business players on how it shaped India’s media explosion.
BY SEVANTI NINAN| IN BOOKS |30/01/2016
The entrepreneur from Haryana who built the Zee empire tells an unvarnished story. Tact and discretion do not figure.
Impact of ad blockers on the media
BY NIKHIL PAHWA| IN MEDIA BUSINESS |05/10/2015
The technology battle over ad blocking will hurt the web: Readers have the right to use ad blockers, and publishers will be pushed to block users who use ad blockers.
BY ANINDA MANNA and PARANJOY GUHA THAKURTA| IN MEDIA BUSINESS |03/09/2015
Diligent Media’s accumulated losses have resulted in the complete erosion of the net worth of the company, while its yearly losses affect Zee Media’s bottom line.
BY ANINDA MANNA and PARANJOY GUHA THAKURTA| IN MEDIA BUSINESS |02/09/2015
Why did the partnership between two media giants flounder? And why does the Zee group continue to absorb DNA’s losses a decade after its launch?
BY PARANJOY GUHA THAKURTA| IN MEDIA BUSINESS |14/06/2015
After Reliance took over Network18, how have its TV channels fared as compared with rivals?
IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |16/02/2015
Talk about the nexus between politics, business and the media. Rajat Sharma epitomises it all. A detailed profile of one of India's most high-profile television anchor-owners by the Economic Times highlights how individuals and firms associated with the corporate conglomerates headed by Mukesh Ambani and Gautam Adani have been generous..
BY Pranati Mehra, Paranjoy Guha Thakurta| IN SPECIAL REPORTS |22/02/2014
NDTV Tax Story - Part III. Within this media house they believe that there is a BJP link connecting the politicians and journalists who target them.
Raghav Bahl: felled by his own philosophy?
BY VIVIAN FERNANDES| IN MEDIA BUSINESS |31/05/2014
That he did not expect Mukesh Ambani to formalise control is evident from the Think India Foundation set up last year and his plans for it.
BY SUNETRA NARAYAN| IN MEDIA PRACTICE |20/01/2014
Consumerist imperatives ensured that realism and experimentation took a back-seat to saccharine and neo-conservatism in the portrayal of women in Indian soaps.
BY sevanti ninan| IN OPINION|13/11/2013 ?
Just how much surrogate ownership is there in media? The intricacy with which this is done is fascinating in the latest case to come to light, ??
IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |31/08/2013
Now it's the turn of Bloomberg TV India. On Friday more than 30 people were sacked by the business channel. Those who lost their jobs included directors, camera persons, editors, producers and an anchor. Each one was given three months' salary, in addition to the August salary. Anil Ambani is..
Lessons from the Outlook Group closures
BY sevanti ninan| IN OPINION |08/08/2013
Even after post-closure confabulations with management, editors of these magazines are no wiser as to what really sparked the decision.
BY sevanti ninan| IN OPINION |13/06/2013
Behind the sporadic headlines on this long running fight between broadcasters and TAM, are a bunch of curious contradictions, even ironies,
The Deccan Chronicle saga turns murkier
BY Special Correspondent| IN REGIONAL MEDIA|05/08/2012
Will Deccan Chronicle survive the acute financial crisis and the criminal cases staring in the face of its promoters?
'Let's go to the crushing zone!'
BY Neha Dixit| IN MEDIA PRACTICE |19/06/2012
Tehelka journalist Tarun Sehrawat's death has not just opened a can of worms but also exposed the callous attitude of media organisations,
India needs cross media restrictions
BY PARANJOY GUHA THAKURTA| IN MEDIA BUSINESS |10/06/2012
The ASCI report says there is ample evidence of "market dominance" in specific media markets, but the government has ignored the report for three years.
BY sevanti ninan| IN OPINION |07/06/2012
Now that we are into a different season of need, the corporate acquisition of media is growing again.
IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |28/05/2012
A Regional PF Commissioner in Kochi has ordered that the journalists and non-journalist employees working on contract basis in the Kochi unit of the New Indian Express are eligible for Provident Fund benefits. He rejected the NIE management's claim that the journalist and non-journalist's of the NIE, Kochi are not..
IN MEDIA BUSINESS |12/02/2012
While some large media houses have been doing everything possible not to implement wage revision for their employees, a newspaper house in the North-East has become a trend-setter with its worker-friendly action.
Brand leader thinks inside the box
IN MEDIA PRACTICE |20/09/2011
Should media houses lend their brand name to activities which they cannot influence?
Media ownership: interesting indicators
BY hoot desk| IN MEDIA BUSINESS |04/03/2011
Interesting indicators emerge from the mandatory March declarations. About the investments made by the Ambani brothers in media, and about the presence of companies registered in Mauritius in the shareholding of media companies.
"Our paper isn’t for our editors. It’s for people."
BY ANJALI PURI| IN MEDIA PRACTICE |30/10/2010
BY Padmaja Shaw| IN MEDIA PRACTICE|10/08/2009
It is of great importance for the public to know who the owners of the newspapers and the channels are and what their primary source of funding is.
BY sevanti ninan| IN MEDIA PRACTICE |01/09/2009
Why James Murdoch is mad at the BBC and Ofcom, but cool with I and B and Doordarshan
BY Suneetha B| IN MEDIA BUSINESS |30/05/2009
A Connecticut newspaper conducted an outsourcing-related sting operation on Indian journalists.
IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |22/12/2008
The Ahmedabad Mirror which used to be given free with the Times of India in that city, has now been priced at Rs 1. The Economic Times in Ahmedabad has stopped hiring. DNA in Ahmedabad has engineered the departure of four journalists employed with them, including one in Rajkot. It has scaled..
BY Padmaja Shaw| IN MEDIA PRACTICE |26/10/2008
Anchors on NDTV have been pushing viewers to invest. One is not sure if there is conflict of interest in such advice from ESOP holders in a listed media company,
Survival tricks of Telugu TV channels
BY Padmaja Shaw| IN MEDIA PRACTICE |03/04/2008
The channels are leading a wave of religious revivalism purely because religion and culture can also be packaged and sold.
IN MEDIA PRACTICE |02/02/2008
"If we need to open out books to the finance ministry then we will...."
Do readers know what they want?
BY Vinod Mehta| IN MEDIA PRACTICE |20/12/2007
Content is a mix of what the reader wants and what he does not want…The reader, ladies and gentlemen, is not king; actually he is a nice hypocrite.
Raking it in from coaching centres
BY B.P. Sanjay| IN MEDIA PRACTICE |14/06/2007
The media has to share some of the blame for the heightened role commercial coaching has acquired in middle class aspirations.
Newspaper circulations climb despite Internet
IN MEDIA PRACTICE |14/06/2007
Newspaper circulations worldwide rose 2.3 percent in 2006 with Indian sales increasing most with 12.93 percent.
BY ninan| IN MEDIA PRACTICE |13/10/2006
Twenty-first century media is going to grow very differently from media as we understand it.
Sun—not a model for the media world
BY ramanujan| IN MEDIA PRACTICE |03/05/2006
Nothing wrong in Kalanidhi Maran trying to emerge as India’s Rupert Murdoch provided he does not use unfair means to eliminate his competitors.
Jaya’s motivation vs Sun TV’s monopoly
BY ramanujan| IN REGIONAL MEDIA |31/01/2006
Jayalalithaa’s bill may be the outcome of local political rivalry, but the issue it raises of media monopoly has to be addressed in the larger interest of democracy.
Independent doubles interest in Jagran group
IN MEDIA PRACTICE |18/01/2006
This is one of a series of foreign investors entering the growing Indian media and entertainment sector.
Mumbai’s newspaper bounty
IN MEDIA PRACTICE |10/09/2005
The paper with the most aggressive advertising has proved to be the most disappointing.
Frank, Fearless, Free and Readable
IN MEDIA PRACTICE |28/08/2005IN Media Practice | 28/08/2005
Freebie dailies are not new but their growing popularity is. Globally they target niche groups and are cutting into the circulation of established newspapers.
Taking revenge against an editor!
IN REGIONAL MEDIA |11/05/2005
The "revenge" by a proprietor against a reputed editor raises questions about the hold of the management over journalists.
IN MEDIA PRACTICE |12/04/2005
Besides an inevitable price war, the launch of new newspapers will also see unveiling of innovative marketing techniques to grab advertising revenues.
IN MEDIA PRACTICE |31/01/2005
Does so much growth signify an industryin the pink of health? Or one in which expansion is becoming both a technological necessity and a matter of surviving the competition?
The Independent publisher to buy stake in Dainik Jagran
IN REGIONAL MEDIA |29/12/2004
The publisher of The Independent and the Belfast Telegraph is on the verge of buying a stake in Indiaøs leading Hindi daily Dainik Jagran.
Business channels spell business
IN MEDIA PRACTICE |03/08/2004
Booming media, exploited journalists in Assam
IN REGIONAL MEDIA |02/08/2004
Newspaper editions are multiplying across the state but more than 60 per cent newspaper employees in Assam are deprived of basic minimum facilities.
Marathi newspapers wage a price war
BY kulkarni| IN REGIONAL MEDIA |05/01/2004
While Lokmat and Sakal first played the price-game at Sangli, Sakal has reduced price recently in Kolhapur and Lokmat may soon follow the same strategy in Kolhapur.
Aakash Channel awaits its comeuppance
BY correspondent| IN REGIONAL MEDIA |29/12/2003
The TV channel which was one of the major reasons for Ajit Jogi’s downfall is set to face uncertain times as pressure builds up for a takeover by the Bharatiya Janata Party’s men.
| IN REGIONAL MEDIA |29/09/2003
The Times of India: conscience keeper or FMCG?
BY vivek sharma| IN MEDIA PRACTICE |01/04/2003
What its competitors lost in market share was less costly than what they lost by giving the Times the perceived legitimacy for its actions.
Steering a family-owned Indian newspaper
IN MEDIA PRACTICE |01/09/2002
N Murali of The Hindu interviewed on family owned media, journalistic values, commercial interests, the competition, price wars, and the entry of foreign media.
Uttaranchals dubious publishing boom
BY sevanti ninan| IN REGIONAL MEDIA |06/06/2002
When so many people are rushing to print newspapers, booking a title calls for more than a little ingenuity.
Television Ratings-Will the Industry Scare Help Focus on the Real Issues?
IN MEDIA PRACTICE |19/04/2002
TRPs could be more accurate than what the system reflects now.
