சன் (பிக்சர்ஸ்) செய்திகள்

பீதிக்கும் பரபரப்புக்கும் பெயர்போன சன் செய்திகளில் நடுநிலையை எதிர்பார்ப்பது கொஞ்சம் அதிகம்தான். சன் தொலைக்காட்சி நிறுவனம் திரைப்படத் தயாரிப்பில் இறங்கியதிலிருந்து தங்கள் திரைப்படம் சம்பந்தப்பட்ட உருப்படாத செய்திகள் தலைப்புச் செய்திகளில் இடம் பெறுவது வழக்கமாகியுள்ளது. காதலில் விழுந்தேனில் ஆரம்பித்த தலைவலி படிக்காதவன் வரை தொடர்கிறது. 

இன்றைய தலைப்புச் செய்திகளில் சுள்ளான் தனுஷ் படிக்காதவன் திரைபடத்தை திரையரங்குகளில் ரசிகர்களுடன் கண்டு கழித்தார் எனும் செய்தி தலைப்புச் செய்தியாக இடம்பெற்றுள்ளது. வெளிநாட்டு உள்நாட்டு அரசியல் செய்திகளை விட படிக்காதவன் செய்தி முக்கியத்துவம் வாய்ந்தது எப்படி என்று சற்றும் புரியவில்லை. தங்கள் தொலைக்காட்சி நிறுவனத்தின் பலத்தை கொண்டு சுமாரான படத்தைக் கூட வெற்றிப் படமாக மாற்றுவதே தங்கள் குறிக்கோளாக கொண்டுள்ளனர் மாறன் சகோதரர்கள். இந்தப் போக்கு "Editorial Integrity"-யை தொழில் வெற்றிக்காக விட்டுக்கொடுப்பதாகும். விளம்பரதாரர்களுக்கு சாதகமாக செய்திகள் எழுதுவது ஒன்றும் புதிதல்ல. வடக்கில் Times of India போன்ற நிறுவனங்கள் இதை காலம் காலமாக கடைப்பிடித்து வருகிறார்கள். இதுமட்டுமல்லாது, சிறந்த பத்து பாடல்கள் & சிறந்த பத்து திரைப்படங்கள் ஆகிய நிகழ்ச்சிகளிலும் தங்கள் சொந்த தயாரிப்பு படங்களுக்கே முன்னுரிமை தரப்படுகிறது. 

மேலும் பல படங்களை தயாரிக்கும் சன் நிறுவனம் தங்கள் செய்தித்தாள், பண்பலை மற்றும் தொலைக்காட்சி மூலம் மக்களை முட்டாள் ஆக்கி படத்தை ஓட வைக்க சகல முயர்ச்சிகளிலும் ஈடுபடும். பாராளுமன்றத் தேர்தல் வரவிருக்கும் இவ்வேளையில், சன் செய்திகளை விட அதிக பொழுதுபோக்கு தரக்கூடிய ஒரு நிகழ்ச்சி கிடையாது.

Defending Her Turf

After facing flak from different sections regarding the recent TV coverage of the Mumbai terrorist attacks, Barkha Dutt finally comes out with her point-by-point response to the various charges levelled against TV channels. While she admits gaps in the coverage especially with regard to the CST angle, she largely defends most of the other actions surrounding live coverage and reactions from affected people. I wish she had commented on things like the "exclusive footage" one-upmanship claims by the different channels at a time when the country was facing one of the worst crisis ever.

 

Lost in Translation

If not adopted properly, Hindi ads won't work in Tamil. This is the central theme of Gokul Krishnamurthy's interesting piece in Business Line. He cites examples of ads which have not connected with the audience because the message was literally translated to Tamil. On top of this, I have big issues with the kind of voices used to dub the Hindi ads into Tamil. One recent example was the ICICI Bank ad in which Shah Rukh appears to reassure people that the bank is safe. The voices used were really horrible.

Even the tagline ‘Ho toh BIG ho’ (If it has to be, it has to be big) has been unimaginatively translated as ‘Irundha BIG-ga irukkanum’.

Let’s look at a different category. Fanta’s orangy blast story was refreshingly told with Laga Kya earlier this year. Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh are said to be more inclined towards fruit-based flavours of soft drinks, making them strategically important markets for a brand such as Fanta. But when Laga Kya got translated into Tamil, the voiceover said: ‘Pattucha’.

Contextually, there are some ads, and smart lines conceived for the pan-India audience, which cannot make as much of an impact when translated into regional languages. When a Virgin Mobile’s ‘Think Hatke’ becomes a ‘Maathi Yosi’, it loses some of its impact, but is still a better effort at reaching those audiences than persisting with the Hindi tagline. When a Philips DVD player’s ‘Plays anything, almost anything’ becomes ‘Edhaiyum play seyyum, Kita thatta edhaiyum’, one wonders who should be prosecuted.

And then there’s the Samsung mobile commercial, which tries to ride on Don dialogue ‘Isko gayab karna mushkil hi nahin, namumkin hai’. Quite like Big TV’s ‘Mere paas maa hai’, this one too has been literally translated into ‘Idhai maraiya vaippadhu kashtam mattum alla, mudiyave mudiyadhu’. The line does get the message across. But what was the compulsion to use a literal translation? What is more important — sticking to the national TVC word-for-word or connecting with the audience with advertising they can relate to? (Link)

Related Posts: Marketing to TAM Land: The Pulli Raja Way

Power Cuts and Mega Serials

At a time when students and industries are sufferring from the impact of the power cuts in TN, ToI captures the disappointment of TV viewers (mostly women) who are missing their daily dose of mega serials.

The impact is reflected in the TRP ratings. According to the latest overall TAM ratings (for the period October 26 to November 1), Sun, Kalaignar, Jaya and Raj TV channels have registered a marginal improvement over the previous week. Industry watchers, however, confirmed that daytime viewing of serials has been affected.

 

Although prime time viewership (between 6 pm and 10 pm) has remained unaffected, with serials like “Arasi’ and ‘Kolangal’ registering an increase in ratings, those aired in the mornings such as ‘Vasantham’ and ‘Athipookal’ on Sun TV have seen a dip in their ratings this week compared to last week. 

Niche programmes like ‘Airtel Super Singer’ continue to be unaffected as well, but industry watchers conceded that there was an imbalance in the viewing pattern, not out of audience choice but due to force of circumstances. (Link)

On the topic of mega-serials, would we see a day when Sun TV stops screening Radhika serials and tries out a different concept in the prime time slot? The Star Plus - Balaji Telefilms spat shows that long running soaps would be shown the door one day.

If you are good at identifying Tamil TV celebs, do check out Blogeswari's quiz.

The battle of the e-papers'

I have been reading the e-papers of the English dailies published from Chennai and here is a quick comparison between the different papers.

New Indian Express - No login required. Easy Navigation. Usually gets updated a bit later than the other dailies. 

Deccan Chronicle - Login required. Easy Navigation. Probably the first e-paper to get updated in the morning. Users can choose to read their Hyderabad and Chennai editions.

Times of India - Usually the last one to get updated daily. Offers choice of different editions including Chennai. Economic Times Chennai edition is also available. Doesn't offer page preview of other pages. NIE and DC offer page preview of other pages.

The Hindu - The most boring news website one can ever come across. Although the website gets updated at about 1.30 am IST, their website hardly sees any action during the day except for some sparse news updates. The e-paper of The Hindu is a paid service and I often wonder who would sign-up for such a service. It's better to follow The Hindu by subscribing to RSS feeds. NIE and DC don't offer RSS feeds.

Even neighbourhood newspapers like Anna Nagar Times have hopped on to the e-paper bandwagon. 

Tamil newspapers like Dinamani, Dinakaran, Dinamalar and Dinathanthi do offer their content in e-paper format. Instead of reading the Tamil e-paper, my preferred route is to catch up on Tamil news via Google News Tamil.

Although e-papers' give you the feeling of reading the real paper, it is more time consuming than browsing the headlines on a website. Because of this reason, it is difficult to say whether the e-paper format is finding favour with the audience. 

Spell Checker on a Deepavali Break

Too many typos in a front page article that appeared in The New Indian Express today. Expand image to view the full article.

WorldSpace Goes Bust

WorldSpace Inc., a pioneer in the field of Satellite Radio has filed for bankruptcy. WorldSpace carved a name for itself providing quality music devoid of commercials. It targetted a premium audience and charged an annual subscription fee. Listeners also had to buy a compatible radio set to enjoy their programmes. The Carnatic music channel offered by WorldSpace was quite popular as there were no other competing offerings in Radio (FM etc) in this niche space. KL Radio, a Tamil channel from the stable of Dinamalar, was also available on WorldSpace. WorldSpace also caught the attention of the public by roping in ARR as their brand ambassador. ARR’s signature tune brought instant recognition to WorldSpace.

Digital satellite radio broadcasting company, WorldSpace Inc, has filed for bankruptcy protection in a court after failing to obtain new financing.

WorldSpace is present in over 130 countries worldwide. It launched its India services in 2000 with over 35 free-to-air channels. In 2002, it converted a few of its channels to pay and went completely pay in 2004. 

As at the end 2007, it had a customer base of over 1.6 lakh in India — over 93 per cent of its world-wide subscriber base.

 

It beams over 45 channels in India, most of which are branded ‘WorldSpace’ though a few are owned and operated by other players such as BBC, CNN, AIR and KL Radio. (Source: The Hindu Business Line)

From the beginning, I had my own reservations about the viability of a paid subscription model for commercial radio broadcasts in India. The hardware requirement was another drawback. In a market where FM channels reign supreme and where the FM feature is ubiquitous in mobile phones and car stereos, WorldSpace should have known that the writing was on the wall.