News 18 HSM ahead of the assembly elections has their renowned Bhaiyaji aka PrateekTrivedi is traveling across UP, Uttarakhand, and Punjab to bring viewers insights from ground zero of the upcoming battle.
Under the umbrella programming for election – Sabse Bada Dangal, the show BhaiyajiKahin will travel through key constituencies while giving a unique platform to the voters to highlight their concerns and expectations. Through the show, the immensely popular anchor Prateek will also engage in candid conversations with all the stakeholders – the voters, political leaders, and the biggest newsmakers.
In an exclusive Karan Abhishek Singh, CEO, Hindi News Cluster, Network18 talks to us on the special programming for the upcoming elections in 5 states, the special show ‘Sabse Bada Dangal’ and much more…
How are you planning to garner eyeballs for the special programming for the upcoming elections?
We are the largest news broadcaster in the country with a vast presence in 15 languages. From that lens, we have a deep-rooted presence across every geography in the country and that’s true for the election states as well. So, considering we have at least one reporter in every single district of the country, we believe we are supremely primed to bring to our viewer’s cutting-edge developments during the election period in all the poll-bound states. We will tap into the expansive network of our reporters to drive synergies across our National & regional channels and to keep the viewers updated about developments in every nook and corner in the election playground.
Elections are a month away. What would be the strategy to stay on top of the competition?
We’ve hit the ground pretty early. While we have an array of shows, which are our existing shows across our national and regional channels, we have also beefed up our election coverage – whether it’s from evaluating the policy outlook or from the lens of aspirations and hopes of different segments of voters. We are looking at the youth, students, women amongst others on what are the things that move them, what are the issues that they are really passionate about, what is it that they are talking about etc. We believe we are the reflection of society. So, whatever is being discussed with a view on elections across different segments of the electorate, I think we provide a voice and platform to them. It also helps in creating meaningful discussions around key issues which sometimes may not naturally come up but are a result of the kind of proactive programming we are doing. For instance, we are doing shows from the banks of River Ganga in Uttar Pradesh; we have done a series of events in different locations – in UP, Punjab, Uttarakhand. We are in the midst of a very successful ‘Rising’ series. We have concludedRising Utarakhand&Rising Punjab and Agenda UP are slated within this week. I think we have a very comprehensive lineup of programming to cater to the elections.
One unique aspect I am personally very excited about is the fact that while on News18 India which is our flagship national channel, we have the biggest faces, the most talked-about lineup of the primetime anchors in the Hindi news genre, what we are also doing is truly giving it a mighty network push. That means even our regional channels will tap into the available resources and you will see our biggest faces across all channels – News18 India, News18 UP/UK, News18 Punjab/Haryana, and so on. You will see a great amalgamation of the biggest assets that the Network has, taking up the cause and taking up programming across the regional geographies and regional channels. That is something absolutely unique to our network.
Bhaiyaji Kahin – Sabse Bada Dangal – can you elaborate on the format?
It’s a very unique travelogue format show. The anchor, Prateek, is a reasonably big face across the Hindi heartland. He travels to key cities, electorates, and districts and provides a platform to the voice of the common man and woman. I believe the platform serves as a great forum to precipitate what the common public is thinking and it also helps provide a bridge with people in leadership positions. It is unique in its content also. Prateek has been doing BhaiyajiKahin from different locations in the country. With the elections coming up, we are leveraging Prateek’s presence and his reach and therefore, taking the discussion deep into the homes of people in deeper and far-flung geographies.
Today with new players in the market especially Hindi, how is the advertising pie looking?
It’s pretty exciting. We’ve always had a very robust set of advertisers partnering with us. I think there is a fair amount of repeat advertising that we see from almost all of our advertisers, and that’s the true measure of the confidence they have when they invest their advertising rupees.
We have always seen good traction for our election programming but this time with the state elections coming up we really hit the ground running across both our editorial and content side as well as the packages to the market and partnership options to the advertisers. We have already signed up a slew of sponsors and partners. There is a fair amount of excitement in the advertiser community considering UP and Punjab are very hotly discussed states from the election point of view. Alongside, Uttarakhand has come up the discussion ladder very rapidly, especially looking at the clarion call by the Prime Minister that the next decade belongs to Uttarakhand. So, there is heightened political activity and consequently, greater interest in the viewer community. Therefore, there is that much more excitement and inquisitiveness from the advertiser side as well.
What would be the other initiatives by the channel during this period?
I am very excited to share that we have a full 360-degree programming outlook for the elections. The number of on-ground shows, as well as the number of viewer engagement, shows that we are doing – that’s pretty unique. Also, we are coming off the back of the last two calendar years where COVID-19 had a significant impact and did not allow us to go deep into different geographies and engage with our viewers directly. So from that point of view, I believe, there is that much more excitement in the broadcast community. We have created various formats for the elections – there are on-ground events like the Rising series in different states, there are daily programming like BhaiyajiKahin which travel in the deeper and far-flung geographies in the country, get into the homes of the voters to get their perspectives, concerns, and issues on the front end. Then, there are also a set of outreach activities that are being planned from our side. I think there is a fair amount of buzz we are looking at creating. I can confidently say that every subsequent week is going to see more action than the previous one.
