TV channels - The way forward

Today, television as a medium has grown. Even if you don’t read newspaper, you can know what’s happening in the country. Almost every household in India has a TV set and unlike before today you have many channel options available.
Television being an audio-visual medium, you are not simply listening but also see how it is happening. That’s what has gained importance over a period of time for those who can’t read but can understand an incident. So each channel wants to be ahead of the other and comes up with different strategies to make sure they are number one in the industry.
And the competition is just not between the sports channels or entertainment channels. All channels fight against each other to make sure they are able to hold on their viewership. And because of that you can’t really differentiate between a news channel and entertainment channel.
Entertainment channel will give you all the information pertaining to celebrities, parties, gossips, etc. but if you switch over to a news channel you will find the same happening. News channels have shows like Saas, Bahu and Shaazesh which run for half an hour providing gossips regarding the television and film stars.
My question is when you have an entertainment channel like Zoom, MTV, Channel V, than why to have a separate slot in a news channel? The answer to this is simple. Along with hard core news if you get to watch some light news there isn’t any harm. And that’s how channels are making money. Therefore, the viewership patterns have also increased.
People are getting to watch entertainment and news on one channel. Thus more advertisers are getting attracted towards such channels. News is just for 20 minutes. The remaining time is for the advertisers. And channels have to make sure that the ads appear as they are heavily paid for it.
But there are channels that in spite of doing this are successful and have a loyal audience watching them. CNN-IBN is one such English Channel that covers everything. But the news they deliver has much more relevance besides the other shows. The credibility of the reporters has increased over a period of time and therefore serious news is taken in a serious way.
On the other hand, you have channels like Aaj Tak and India Today, who make fun of serious news. Though they have been able to gain eyeballs, but nobody takes their words seriously as you never know the news is authentic or not.
The future of TV channels is great as its not only about news and entertainment. You have shows like Big Boss which connect you to the life of the celebrity. Then there is Discovery and National Geographic which talk about different aspects. These channels too have their audiences and have been successful in their own way.
No matter what image a channel builds in the eyes of its viewer, they will continue to attract people and make business because they believe that they are showing only that what the audiences want to see.
Long live Television...!!