Republic Bharat was launched on 2nd February 2019, in a cluttered Hindi news space and has completed a successful 18 months. Arnab has always believed that even in the news genre, content is very important and as long as the channel is ahead of the news, the channel will always be ahead of the existing Hindi news channels.
At the launch, the channel wanted to create a clear position for itself as a brand, which brought new style of hard–hitting news, deep investigation, impact-driven and people-focused journalism to the Hindi speaking audience in India. The tag line ‘Rashtra Ka Naam’ resonates very well across the Hindi speaking states of the country. It positioned itself with the rising preference for the country i.e India and Bharat, because when you say Bharat today, it signifies the heart and soul of India among the people who speak not only English, but all the other Indian languages.
Today Rebuplic Bharat has a market Share of 22. 86% way ahead of its established competitors. Its flagship show ‘Poochta Hai Bharat Arnab Ke Saath’s market share in the Hindi News Genre is the highest with 15.5%. Competition channels such as Aaj Tak and ABP News are at 14.2% and 13.8% respectively.
Arnab Goswami, Managing Director and Editor-In-Chief, Republic Media Network, speaks to us on the phenomenal rise and the style of Journalism he has always believed in.
On the rise of the channel in a very short time of 18 months he says, “It is the result of the sustained effort of the editorial teams for the last 18 months. A sustained effort by the editoral, distribution and Marketing teams who have been working very hard. We have been very clear from the launch of Republic Bharat that it will be the new No1 in the Hindi genre space. It is the result of the fact that we dedicate ourselves to 100% news. We have changed the formula , the so called formula which was being used by people who claimed to run Hindi news Channels, which are in fact not news Channels but a mix of Youtube footage and entertainment.”
On the topic of how Hindi news channels based their programmes he clearly and reiterated his stand by saying, “We changed the logic on its head and put News’s first and we have won on every news story and we have also added a stronger dimension of campaign based activist journalism which I have believed from the start. This activist based campaign journalism for people’s issues has come to the forefront very strongly in Rebuplic Bharat as well.”
When we asked him on the other issues which he has taken up, especially the Palghar issue he said, “absolutely we are going to do much more of it, as you have seen on the big stories whether it be Shaheen Bagh, Balakot Air Strikes on every story which has become a people’s issue we have led from the front. People have started identifying us to this kind of journalism, and I think it is the new wave in the Hindi news genre.We have taken up the Palghar issue very strongly in the past and because of our strong efforts the matter is before the SC and in the next 14 days the Maharashtra Government has to give a reply and we will be in the forefront of Palghar and other issues.”
During this lockdown we are seeing a huge spike in terms of viewership in the news channels and the volume of audiences that news is generating is much more than even GEC. Goswami says, “I think it depends on what is being offered in terms of content, GEC content has become tiresome, predictable and repetitive, I do not want to comment too much on this but News Channels have become far more closely associated with people’s causes and that is what draws us closer to them. Our investigations continue till it reaches a logical conclusion, we do not give up easily.”
