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Solid content planning, programming & marketing strategy makes CNN-News18 industry leader: Smriti Mehra
Mumbai: CNN-News18 emerged as the leading English news channel in terms of relative market share during weeks 15-18 2022, as per Broadcast Audience Research Council (Barc) India. The channel garnered a relative share of 29 per cent followed by other channels Republic TV (25.90 per cent) and Times Now (23.80 per cent).
The channel’s lead became even more remarkable during the primetime hours between 18:00-23:00 pm where its relative share reached 37.3 per cent with Republic TV in second place trailing far behind at 28.7 per cent.
The leap in the channel’s ratings were supported by a sustained strategy by the broadcaster to broad base its programming to cater to all geographies in the country and build its content strategy around news that the consumer wants to see. This strategy was implemented during the ‘ratings dark’ period that lasted from October 2020 until March 2022 (week 10 2022) where there was no Barc data available for individual news channels.
With 19 years of experience, Smriti Mehra leads Network18 Group’s news brands such as CNBC TV18, CNBC Awaaz, CNBC Bajar and CNBCTV18.com. She’s an experienced revenue head with a demonstrated history of working in the media industry across mediums.
Her expertise lies in customer relationship management, market research, management, marketing, and business development.
Her past associations include stints at Bennett Coleman and Company, Discovery Communications, Turner Broadcasting and Arré.
In conversation with Indiantelevision.com, Network18 Media and Investments CEO – business news Smriti Mehra who speaks about the business strategy, brand positioning and marketing initiatives by the network to become a leading brand in the English news genre.
Edited Excerpts
On the programming strategy adopted by Network18 during ‘ratings dark’ period
In the 18 months when there were no ratings, we consciously took a step back from everything we were doing. When you work in a faced-paced industry some paradigms and templates are formed that everyone conforms to. We took that time to reflect and it was not just a passive process, it involved social listening and observing the content offtake. We asked if there was a sharper target group that we wanted to aim at. We decided that we have to diversify beyond just serving political news to understanding what the consumer really wants to watch.
The channel built its content strategy around multiple layers of content. Now, it shows content on start-ups and sports while there is still political news at the centre.
Network18 has a massive network of 1200 reporters across the length and breadth of the country that helps us go hyperlocal. There’s also a strong international presence with brands like CNN and CNBC. This helps us cover an entire palette in our content strategy and that’s what we offered to the consumer.
The amalgamation of all of this has been an evolved content strategy. Along with distribution, it has led to a dramatic surge in CNN-News18’s performance and I think this strategy, where we put the consumer at the centre and build content around them, is here to stay. CNN-News18 is not just a debate-only channel, we’re doing story-led content that’s really working with our viewers.
On broad basing programming to attract a wider audience to the channel
To widen our content offering, what we’ve done is integrate our newsroom. The content needs to be offered across multiple platforms and in multiple formats but at the centre the product remains the same, which is news. That has helped us attract eyeballs or target audiences beyond the core T.G of the news genre that every channel goes after.
On the brand positioning – ‘news over noise’
What I’ve spoken to you about kind of reflects our positioning as well. We want to invest our mind space, energy and efforts into actually doing the news. It’s also about breaking the existing mould of TV programming and moving away from the standard template. This is an experiment that we’re trying and some of the experiments may succeed and others may not succeed but at the end the consumer is at the centre of the news programming that we’re building.
There has been a positive response to our efforts from the viewers and acceptance of our programming. Not to say that this strategy is fixed and not open to change as some things will work and others will not. By and large, we are constantly putting pressure on ourselves to evolve as the demand from the viewer changes and the audience asks for something different from news programming.
On consumption trends of the English-speaking audience in the news genre
Broadcast is seeing an increasing need to converge. The offtake of news consumption is moving to screens beyond television. TV content is also moving from being just cable and DTH driven to being powered by the internet.
The sources of news and credibility of news brands, however, are not changing. There are still people who want to listen to brands like ours whether it is CNN-News18 or CNBC-TV18.
We’re moved beyond just doing TV news. Our brand is across formats like platform video, audio and we’re investing in products like Local18, our hyperlocal news platform, and we’re building our social media content as well. This is the need of the hour and there’s no running away from it.
On the revenue outcomes for the channel
The revenue outcomes for the channel change in two ways.
One is just the television ratings. Not just now but even during the Covid phase when ratings were there, since there was no fresh content on entertainment channels and live sports was not happening, the news genre saw a huge upsurge in viewership.
The news cycle became extremely relevant in the backdrop of Covid and the economy. People were turning to news and being an essential service, we were up and running at all points in time. During this period, we saw a huge amount of viewer interest and because of that a whole lot of advertisers partnered with us. This was an industry phenomenon and not confined to CNN-News18.
The return of TV ratings has only helped us substantiate our position and supersize our association and commercial arrangements with a lot of advertisers.
The second part is Network18 Group at large is diversifying its content and bringing news at the centre of all its programming efforts. And I think advertisers have taken notice of our efforts. We’re become so much more brand safe and have created a non-volatile environment to advertise in.
We’ve created solutions for big name advertisers like Reckitt who partnered with us for the social campaign ‘Mission Paani’. P&G partnered with us on the ‘Period of Pride’ campaign around menstrual health education. These are brands of repute who are wanting to affect behaviour change through social campaigns.
When you do all these things, my experience of 19 years has shown that revenues generally follow. This strategy has not been taken up with just revenues in mind but as an overall business strategy upholding all the pillars of Network18.
On partnering with brands for larger initiatives
There’s a lot more appetite among brands to do socially conscious messaging campaigns. On 5 June, World Environment Day, you must have observed that a plethora of brands put out messaging celebrating the day. Climate change is a reality and as the country experienced one of the harshest summers in decades, brands want their communication to reflect what the consumer is going through.
A lot of brands want to partner with a larger platform like ours to co-create and build large campaigns that speak to the consumer. At Network18, we’re brilliantly poised to deliver such campaigns as we have a national presence, a regional presence and speak across 12 Indian languages. We report news from every corner of the country and there’s a big digital reach as well.
On the business strategy of the channel going forward
We want to continue our content and performance leadership. We’ve been able to reach there very quickly during the financial year. Our efforts will be to remain in this position and grow bigger from here. There will be endeavour to experiment with more content formats as we continue to stay committed to our diversification intent for CNN-News18. Beyond that, we’d like to partner with advertisers to work on contextual campaigns and co-create large campaigns that really bring their message across in a credible way.
English news content will become multi-screen sooner than any other language. The response to this trend is not bifurcating your business into silos. Network18 has a very large TV business and digital business and we’ve seamlessly converged on the content side and business side everywhere. That’s a step that most companies haven’t taken.
For us, digital business is growing at a hyper-speed and it is happening because there is excellent monetisation of the audiences that come on digital.
On the marketing initiatives undertaken by the network to strengthen its positioning
During the two years of the pandemic, we constantly rolled our campaigns that had nothing to do with CNN-News18 brand or TV ratings. Our marketing was about building a responsible voice and communicating what was important to the consumer. We executed a campaign that celebrated frontline workers ‘Extraordinary Among Us’ and another one that was about India supporting Covid orphans. There were campaigns on masking-up and social distancing because the community needed to know.
In the coming months, you’ll see fresh intellectual properties (IPs) coming from our stable that capitalise on the leadership position of CNN-News18.
NEW DELHI: Hamdard Laboratories gathered a cross-section of India’s achievers in New Delhi on Friday, handing out the Hakeem Abdul Hameed Excellence Awards to figures who have left their mark across healthcare, education, sport, public service and the arts.
The ceremony, attended by minister of state for defence Sanjay Seth and senior officials from the ministry of Ayush, celebrated individuals whose work blends professional success with a sense of public purpose. It was as much a roll call of achievement as it was a reminder that influence is not measured only in profits or podiums, but in people reached and lives improved.
Among the headline awardees was Alakh Pandey, founder and chief executive of PhysicsWallah, recognised for turning affordable digital learning into a mass movement. On the sporting front, Arjuna Awardee and kabaddi player Sakshi Puniya was honoured for her contribution to the game and for pushing women’s participation onto bigger stages.
The cultural spotlight fell on veteran lyricist and poet Santosh Anand, whose songs have echoed across generations of Hindi cinema. At 97, Anand accepted the honour with characteristic humility, reflecting on a life shaped by perseverance and hope.
Healthcare honours spanned both modern and traditional systems. Manoj N. Nesari was recognised for strengthening Ayurveda’s place in national and global health frameworks. Padma shri Mohammed Abdul Waheed was honoured for his research-backed work in Unani medicine, while padma shri Mohsin Wali received recognition for his long-standing contribution to patient-centred care.
Education and social development also featured prominently. Padma shri Zahir Ishaq Kazi was honoured for decades of work in education, while former Meghalaya superintendent of Police T. C. Chacko was recognised for public service. Goonj founder Anshu Gupta received an award for his dignity-centred rural development initiatives, and the Hunar Shakti Foundation was honoured for empowering women and young girls through skill development.
The Lifetime Achievement Award went to former IAS officer Shailaja Chandra for her long career in public healthcare and governance, particularly in the traditional systems under Ayush.
Speaking at the event, Hamdard chairman Abdul Majeed said the awards were a tribute to those who combine excellence with empathy. “These awardees reflect Hakeem Sahib’s belief that healthcare, education and public service must ultimately serve humanity,” he said.
Minister Seth struck a forward-looking note, saying India’s young population gives the country a unique opportunity to become a global destination for learning, health and wellness by 2047.
The ceremony also featured the trailer launch of Unani Ki Kahaani, an upcoming documentary starring actor Jim Sarbh, set to premiere on Discovery on 11 February.
Instituted in memory of Unani scholar and educationist Hakeem Abdul Hameed, the awards have grown into a national platform that celebrates those building a more inclusive and resilient India. For one evening at least, the spotlight was not just on success, but on service with substance.
