Why Anna's fast makes TV channels smile

TV channels love Anna Hazare and his fasts and it is not hard to understand why. The Gandhian's fasts give channels the two things they desire most: high viewership and advertising revenue.

This happened first in April, when Anna Hazare went on a fast at Jantar Mantar in Delhi, and again this month when he broke the government's will by refusing food for 12 days.

In April, it took the news channels a little time to catch on. But in August they were ready. The early morning arrest of Anna Hazare and the drama that followed had their cameras and anchors glued to the spectacle.

For 12 days the nation was treated to breathless, non-stop coverage, first from outside the Tihar Jail in Delhi and then from Ramlila Maidan. More than corruption, the nation was kept high on a diet of protest and patriotism.

Images of tricolor being waved defiantly by Anna Hazare's supporters were spiced with snatches of patriotic songs, film stars and godmen. The coverage had two constants. The first was their focus. They were unabashedly pro-Anna. The second were the commercials. They swelled in number as the protests continued with the anchors imploring the audience not to go away.

The coverage was a good example of what drives media, and how important it is for television executives to know the pulse of the people.

Most people would have thought that the endless coverage would generate viewer fatigue. On the contrary, it led to a sharp spike in television viewership. According to a report published in Business Standard on August 26, the viewership doubled in the first week of the protest.

The two significant points in the report, which was based on information obtained from TAM, a television audience monitoring agency, were:

- The upcountry share of Hindi news channels for the week August 14 to 20 jumped by 87 per cent;

- Similarly, the viewership of English channels shot up by 74 per cent.

A similar jump was recorded in the average daily time spent by a viewer. In the case of Hindi channels the average daily time doubled from 8.28 minutes that a viewer spent on a news channel in the previous four weeks to 16.9 minutes in the week of August 14-20.

In the case of English news channels the daily average time spent more than doubled from 0.30 minutes to 0.72 minutes.

The figures for the April fast are equally revealing. According to a report compiled by Esha, a news monitoring agency, 5,657 video clips were broadcast from April 3 to April 11. The earnings for the channels during this period: Rs 175.86 crore.

The earnings were not limited to the prime time slot alone. The non-prime time slots grossed Rs123 crore while the prime time slots (between 7 pm and 11 pm) raked in Rs 52 crore.

This clearly establishes that the channels gauged the public mood correctly. The question is: Would Anna Hazare have drawn similar media attention if he went on a fast to ensure better wages for farm hands or factory workers?

The answer is an emphatic NO.

The Indian media today is urban centric. To be more precise, it is middle class centric. That is why it identified itself with Anna Hazare's anti-corruption campaign. It realized that the Indian middle class is becoming more apsirational. It wants good governance, and more transparency.

The media knows that it is serving its constituency - and itself -- when it takes up an issue like corruption. This is what the advertiser also wants - more middle class viewers.

Interestingly, like the TV executives, Anna Hazare and Team Anna have been smart enough to realize this. They made the right noises, and brought in the right protest methods like candlelight vigils, Anna topis and Annagiri, to keep both the media and its middle class audience happy.

It is noteworthy that Anna Hazare in his parting speech spoke of another cause that is dear to the middle class - the right to recall. Like the TV channels, Anna and his team too have their fingers on the right button.

Also read: How Television helped Anna succeed

Eight reasons why Anna has won the battle for mindspace

How ethical is it to spice news reports with music?

The trouble with Indian newspaper websites

Headlines Today gets journalism lessons from minister

This is a weekly column looking at news coverage in India. The author Sunil Saxena is a career journalist and author with over three decades of experience in Print, New Media, Social Media, Mobile Journalism, Media Education and Media Research. He also writes a media blog that can be accessed at www.easymedia.in