High Film Centricity in Indian Television Channels

Abstract

A first-ever study of the content—programmes and their formats—of regional television (TV) channels of the largest south Indian state, Andhra Pradesh, working on a 24x7 pattern, has revealed the progressive decadence of public sphere and growing trivialization. The contents were singularly dependent on films and film-related materials such as songs, comedy clippings of scenes and dances for majority of their programmes, and contents as well. Grounded in the observation method (Rao 2008), the study is a simple normative, non-positivist and descriptive one, analyzing the contents and formats of the TV channels which have been divided into two categories: ‘news’ entertainment channels (as described by Thussu 2007) and the ‘other’ entertainment channels. The state of Andhra Pradesh has been taken as a case study for it has 44 TV channels, the highest in any state in India (Thomas 2010). The study has chosen five ‘news’ entertainment channels and five ‘other’ entertainment channels based on the TV rating points and advertisement tariffs besides their tie up with Tata Sky direct to home television channel. While the data obtained by both the ways confirmed that there is a 60 per cent of use of film programmes/content/titles/clippings (out of total time of transmission) in the case of ‘other’ entertainment channels, there has been about 70 per cent of the use of film content and programmes in the ‘news’ based entertainment channels. This confirms our assumption of contracting public sphere and trivialization of news content. The findings of the study have been discussed based on popular literature and scholarly works in the field as also the socio-economic and political factors responsible for such a media phenomenon.