Sathiyam TV, under Sathiyam Media Vision Pvt Ltd in Chennai, aims to serve as the “Fourth Pillar of Society,” fostering a socially responsible environment. It ensures editorial independence, presenting news honestly and transparently. Committed to credibility and factual reporting, it facilitates global access for Tamil speakers.
Through informative broadcasts, Sathiyam TV empowers viewers with trustworthy information, fostering informed decision-making and societal integrity. This dedication positions it to influence positive change and uphold democratic values among its audience.
In an exclusive interaction with MediaNews4U, Dr. Isaac Livingstone, the Managing Director of Sathiyam TV elaborated on the channel’s USP in a cluttered news media space and more:
Q How is Sathiyam TV positioned in the cluttered Tamil News Media space?
Ever since the beginning of our operations in April’ 2010, Sathiyam TV has been positioned as the only Tamil TV channel in the news genre that has been truly unbiased and without subscribing to any political ideology whatsoever. This is evident in the many whistles we blew on the various excesses by the ruling dispensation both in Delhi & Chennai. Such editorial honesty & integrity have given us a wide patronage in the state of TN and such places majorly habituated by the Tamil Diaspora across the world.
Q What is your take on trust levels of viewers towards Television News Media in India?
Ever since privatization, the then state monolith Doordarshan has lost its preeminence in the Television news space. But the mushrooming of private players has done nothing to improve the credibility of television news media. This is because of the fact that most TV News Media are either owned by, or have the backing of established political parties and this has reflected in their most opinionated news bulletins a talk shows.
Q News Media is accused of misjudging the mood of the nation in recent elections, How about Sathiyam’s predictions and analysis?
It was very apparent that most established media houses had got the opinion / exit polls in the recent parliamentary elections completely wrong. Be it an error in judgment or shortcoming in method, the plain fact was that they had got it wrong. To be fair to the news media, the size of the Indian electorate and the much-varied range of regional geopolitics make it extremely difficult to predict these elections to a close degree of accuracy. But, it is with immense pride that we point out the fact that among most well established news channels and psephologists we were just about the only channel to have called the results of the recently conducted 2024 Lok Sabha Polls with a great degree of accuracy.
Not just this time around. We at Sathiyam TV have been making a mark for ourselves in conducting and publishing opinion / exit polls ever since the Lok Sabha Polls in 2014. The method involves from regularly gauging prevailing public mood on the various issues in the political landscape through online polls, stratifying these responses across the demographic spectrum, analyzing the mathematics of pre-poll alliances based on a technical analysis of the constituent vote banks as per data from previous elections and juxtaposing all these with major issues during that given campaign & polling percentages. Such a objective method has been well serving us in all the poll related predictions we have been making as we continue to perfect the way forward.
Pertinently, here below is the card that we telecast and published on the 1st June’ 2024 as the likely results in the recently concluded 2024 Lok Sabha Polls that came the closest to the ultimate results as announced on 4th June’ 2024, the day of counting.
Q News consumption is witnessing a significant shift towards digital, How prepared are you?
Yes. News consumption has been on the digital platforms ever since the advent of smart phones and has peaked since the advent of social media platforms. Sathiyam was one of the earliest to catch this wave and we have been available for consumption over our website and all major social media handles since the early days of this phenomenon.
Q What is your digital reach? Can you share some data on your digital viewership?
We have some of the biggest digital reach in the vernacular news landscape and these are some data about our digital viewership:
www.youtube.com/channel/UC2ziCMHFPWkFHjocUMXT__Q?sub_confirmation=1 -6.34 Million subscribers.
www.facebook.com/SathiyamNEWS – 2.20 Million subscribers.
www.twitter.com/sathiyamnews – 2,80,700 Subscribers.
www.instagram.com/sathiyamnews – 2,24,000 Subscribers.
threads.net/@sathiyamnews – 22,200 Subscribers.
Just to add, some of our digital products such as our early morning Bulletin @ 6AM and our interview show Nerukku Ner command some of the highest consumption in the digital news landscape.
Q Can you elaborate on your audience profile such as age group and male female ratio?
As with the television news genre evidenced in the weekly BARC ratings close to 3/4th of our audience come from the male category. We are the chart Toppers in the Advertiser preferred age groups of Male 22 + ABC & Female 22 + ABC in Chennai & the rest of TN Metros.
Going by dashboard analytics, our digital consumption happens across the world in the same gender divide across very similar age groups.
Q How are Advertisers engaging with Satyam TV, what is the contribution of Advertisement towards overall revenue of the channel?
Most leading consumer brands take exposure in Sathiyam TV with our prime time bulletins, talk shows and interviews being some of the most preferred properties.
As for revenue streams, we earn from Advertisements, slots and events. In this, Ad revenue accounts for approximately 3/4th of our gross earnings.
Q Do you think a larger subscription revenue from viewers will help the News media with better editorial independence, and greater trust?
In the hey days of the print media, it was commonly known that the industry was very dependent on government ad campaigns as a major source of the revenue, to which extent editorials got compromised.
Unlike in those days of print media prominence, revenue streams of modern-day electronic media are very diversified and not constricted to ad revenues. Moreover, editorial forthrightness and independence have more to do with the respective media house’s honesty and integrity. Whereas, public perception these days is that such honesty and integrity have become premium commodity these days.
Being the 4th pillar of our haloed constitution, this is a subject matter of introspection for the entire media industry with the intent to restore public faith on our institutions.
Q What is your expansion plan as a News Media network?
Sathiyam’s multi lingual uplink / downlink licenses will allow us to telecast in any / all Indian languages. However, keeping in line with news consumption these days our expansion plans will be centered more around the digital landscape.
