8 ISSUES AND INSIGHTS MUMBAI | WEDNESDAY 13 MARCH 2019 > than Hindi. Over 53 per cent of total TV in a variety of languages. Why then > CHINESE WHISPERS viewership goes to GECs and a bulk of doesn’t it grow? The real drama on TV what people watch on them is drama And that brings me to the third — so fiction rules. That is what OTT important thing. How things remain The world’s second largest TV market continues to grow and surprisetrends show too. the same. These proportions, of GEC, Confessions of an ally After GECs movies dominate having FILMS, kids, sports etc, have remained The All India Anna Dravida Munnetra second largest TV market — India. A over 2017. Over 30 billion impressions, risen from about 12 per cent of total roughly the same over the 18 years Kazhagam (AIADMK) might be the joint venture between advertisers, 75 new channels, 24,076 movies and viewership in 2010 to 24 per cent now. that I have been tracking this industry. third-largest party in the current Lok broadcasters and media agencies it 989 billion man minutes of TV viewing It underlines once again that movies GECs have always been roughly half Sabha and part of the National keeps tabs on 595 channels by sifting per week are the other big, bull-dozer are the fuel that drive both TV and OTT of all viewing, kids five to six per cent. Democratic Alliance (NDA), but that through 7.5 petabytes of data. This like numbers that hit you. And for viewership — across male and female Films is the only genre that has shown does not make it "a decisive political gives the industry a currency that pow- the over the top (OTT) enthusiasts here or urban and rural viewers. exceptional growth. Twenty eight force", said party Spokesperson Avadi ers $5.7 billion of advertising and con- is a comparison — the 480 million Unfortunately news remains the years after private television began, Kumar during a debate. Then, much to tent spends. The ~74,000 crore Indian Indians with broadband connections third most watched genre at 7.2 per cent drama, films and news continue to the chagrin of his party colleagues, he television business is the largest chunk spend about 50 minutes a day watching — the fall in the standards of news drives viewership. In the 90s it was said in the upcoming election, his of the media and entertainment indus- VIDEO online. TV on the other hand broadcasting simply seems to have Tara and Amaanat now it is Naagin party's focus would be on the by- try (45 per cent) and impacts 4.5 mil- averages 3 hours and 45 minutes and attracted more people to it. and Ishq Subhan Allah. That is true elections to the 18 Assembly lion jobs. BARC’s insights then are crit- continues to grow. It reiterates what What I was really looking forward for OTT as well. Netflix saw a huge constituencies rather than the Lok MEDIASCOPE ical to anyone tracking this business — this column has maintained — the to was seeing a jump in sports viewer- surge in subscriptions when it Sabha. "With 37 members in a 534- VANITA KOHLI KHANDEKAR advertisers, broadcasters, investors or growth of online has been supplemen- ship after all the noise about kabaddi, released its first Indian original, member Lok Sabha, we are just a content creators. tary not cannibalistic. badminton, football et al. Over the Sacred Games in June last year. We droplet," he said comparing the fate of Take the first — the sheer numbers. The second takeaway is the one that decades, cricket has dominated both still look for a good story. Mostly we his party to that of the Dravida he numbers, the diversity and India’s 197 million homes house 836 always fascinates me — India’s diver- the broadcast business and the sport- watch it on a GEC or on a movie Munnetra Kazhagam, which was part the sense of sameness. Those million TV viewers who watch every- sity. The social reality of India’s 29 ing ecosystem to the detriment of channel. At time news channels offer of the United Progressive Alliance. T are the big insights from the thing from general entertainment states and 22 key languages is so evi- every other sport. Thankfully, kabaddi that with their hyper-dramatised, Broadcast Audience Research channels (GECs) to films and sports in dent in our TV viewing habits. The has become huge. It is second only to frequently fictionalised version of Council’s or BARC’s year-end com- a largely single TV market. That is up biggest languages are Hindi, Tamil, cricket and accounts for 15 per cent of events. But each and every time, it Battle for Chhindwara pendium, “What India Watched 2018.” from 790 million in 2016 when the last Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada and oth- total sports viewership. But the sports is our search for a story, for drama that Currently at 40,000 homes covering establishment survey, the study that ers. What is interesting is that the time pie itself remains disappointing — it drives us to a screen and keeps more than 180,000 individuals BARC updates the base number on which the spent on Tamil, Telugu or other GECs has inched from the two per cent it us there. is by the far the world’s largest audi- sample is chosen, was done. Television that cater to a smaller numbers of peo- was at for years to three last year. ence measurement system tracking its viewership rose by 13 per cent in 2018 ple compared to Hindi, is way higher There is now a variety of sports on TV http://twitter.com/vanitakohlik Mining waste is an environmental time bomb The Chhindwara Lok Sabha seat in ILLUSTRATION BY BINAY SINHA Madhya Pradesh is key for both the The industry has consistently displayed a Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). For the coming Lok Sabha cavalier approach to safety when it comes election, Chief Minister Kamal Nath's to disposing of waste (pictured) son Nakul Nath will represent the seat on a Congress ticket. This is the second time since 1980 that Kamal KUNAL BOSE Alunorte suffered an identical crisis in Nath will not contest the seat. As chief 2009. The two wastewater leaks at minister he will fight an Assembly seat he world mining industry Alunorte facilities were a wakeup call instead. Earlier, in 1996, he couldn't always had an image problem for New Delhi since the country has a contest the seat after being accused in T relating to the hollowness of growing profile in bauxite mining and the Jain hawala case and denied a safety-first claim and poor corporate refining of alumina. party ticket. On its part, the BJP senses governance. The image was dented fur- The fact is, what happened in Brazil a reasonably fair chance to win the ther and quite badly so in the past four could too occur elsewhere, including seat this time around. The party is years as a result of three major acci- India unless a regular audit is done of expected to field former union minister dents. As it would happen all the three the storage of mines and alumina refin- Prahlad Patel there. Like Nath, Patel mine disasters took place in Brazil ery waste materials and corrective steps hails from the tribal-dominated where crony capitalism has taken deep are taken without postponement that Mahakaushal region. roots. In one of the worst tailings could harm the environment and people tragedies in history, a dam holding as dearly as in Brazil. Indian Bureau of sludge of a mine owned by the world’s Mines gives the message that manage- largest iron ore producer, Vale, in Minas ment of a tailings dam, which is typically Backbench leader Gerais state of Brazil collapsed on an earth-fill embankment dam, should The Congress January 28 claiming a few hundred be “an integral part of large-scale mining Working lives. The tragedy is a pointer operations.” Safety apart, Committee (CWC) to serious lapses in corporate the mining sector in India aquatic life. Because of grievous Even then, a certain amount of seepage good condition, every producing coun- meeting in governance since the compa- suffered from many other injuries that bauxite could do to the takes place, damaging soil in surround- try should have a target for recycling of Ahmedabad on ny was warned last year that ills, exposing the lack of environment, governments every- ing areas and all life forms. a certain percentage of RM. China, the Tuesday marked the dam had heightened risk effective corporate gover- where, under pressure from environ- Embankment breaches and spill over world’s largest producer of alumina and the debut of of rupturing. nance for the correction of mentalists and NGOs, are putting from RM storage ponds during heavy aluminium, is chasing a target of 10 per recently Earlier in November 2015, which the Supreme Court increasingly stringent conditions on rains always remain a possibility. As cent recycling of RM a year. appointed a tailings dam linked to a had to make game-chang- the opening of new mines. recently as August 2016, two villages in In an attempt to recover wealth from general secretary Brazilian mine jointly owned ing interventions in What is of no less concern is the stor- the Henan province of China were sub- waste, Indian mines secretary Anil of the party, by Vale and Anglo-Australian Karnataka, Odisha and Goa. age of highly alkaline red mud (RM) gen- merged in RM following the collapse of Mukim wants recovery of iron from RM.