Mumbai: In a fireside chat - Can Content be the Light House for News? - with TV9 Network MD & CEO Barun Das - Indiantelevision.com Group founder, CEO and editor-in-chief Anil NM Wanvari deliberated over the nuances of news and content at The Content Hub which was held on 25 April at The Lalit, Mumbai.
Wanvari questioned, “With News9 Plus, when it comes to news and content, how do you place news within the content space?”
“What OTT gives you is the power of choice. I can watch what I want when I want. Therefore, that is the transition that news will have to make. I take immense pride in coming out with the concept of News9 Plus, which we will formally launch soon is the OTT version of news,” Das said.
“In News9 Plus, news is being converted into content. Everything is exclusive but not as news broke. The news breaking would continue to happen on social media. So everything is content which is treatment, perspective, analysis which is our own. There the news makes the transition to content and by doing that I hope we would be able to overcome the challenge that we have unsuccessfully faced so far as TV industry,” he elaborated.
“And what makes you think that the people will pay for news?” asks Wanvari. Das explained the business model that will drive News9 Plus, the world’s first news OTT. “At present, we are not interacting with them (the middle class) directly. We’re not charging subscription fees from them. The consumers are paying but by advertising. So that is a lost opportunity for the news industry. I think that’s what can be addressed through this. News9 Plus eventually would be a paid app. Unless and until people find the content worthwhile to pay for, it won’t stand a chance. So therefore, finally news can actually become content, can evolve into content and in such a compelling content that consumers would not mind paying substantial amount which will make the business viable.”
Ultimately people will be willing to pay for news in which they perceive value and utility, added Das. “People will pay for that news, which they can use. It has to live up to this utility value. Feel good news? Not much interested. Feel good entertainment? Not interested. News has to live up to the utility value. It has to provide utility, and usage to people. Some professions are very numbers driven, like finance professionals, like research professionals, like an IT professional. So if you have to talk, you need to be good enough to participate in any conversation. That’s what we’ll make the cut for you. So, therefore, the utility value is very important. And when we talk about utility value, we’ll have a lot of focus on business content going forward. So when we actually turn to pay, you would say that significant amount of content would be business and economy-related, which people will pay for,” he explained.
Wanvari questioned about the success of the series Duologue with Barun Das, to which Das replied, “I’m not a journalist. I’m not fishing for a headline. I’m there for a cerebral conversation. But sometimes people have expressed things which they haven’t expressed it elsewhere. But one of the latest ones (with Infosys founder NR Narayana Murthy and philanthropist and academician Sudha Murthy), I think, everybody must watch it, the second episode, that I raised a very pertinent question: I said that India is not leveraging 50 per cent of its strength, which are the women and good womanhood will always have to be preceded by good wifehood. So I said why didn’t you take the corner office 40 years back then: possibly chairwoman would have become a legitimate term at Oxford or Cambridge.”
