Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Opinions on ETNow

Frankly, I don'ty have one simply because I have not seen the channel as yet. Not because I don't want two, but simply because despite having THREE (read that THREE) different Direct-To-Home connections (DishTV, Tata-Sky and Airtel) at home I don't get ETNow. I believe that a ton of money has been spent on distribution, but with high-end colonies, presumably colonies with a high proportion of ET readers, having moved over to DTH - have you looked at the (Panchsheel, DefCol or even Bandra West skylines lately?) this is a slight issue. I really would like to watch ETNow, you know! I've seen far too many adverts and not the product as yet. I believe that something might happen before Pranab-babu's 'F*** the Monsoon Failed' Budget. I also know that TAM ratings don't consider DTH households - which make all TAM numbers for English news channels slightly, no make that terribly shambolic. But, I also think that ETNow will trash CNBC-TV18 in the ratings simply because of the amount of reporters that they have. And if ET can manage an 'integrated' newsroom, the demand that TimesNow does the same will only increase, and it should. I know a lot of people in ET read this blog, so please forward this post to someone in Ditribution. Because, if people (almost all my friends are DTH and/or IPTV) don't start seeing the channel soon, we will tend to lose interest.

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

As long as Mitali Mukherjee (& Shireen Bhan) is with CNBC, they don't have to worry about competition. Nobody I know actually listens to all the yak-yak the anchors or reporters do. They switch to CNBC only to watch the live ticker. CNBC scores over all other business channels because it has pretty faces who actually look interested in what they are doing, unlike the extremely irritating anchors in their ugly business suits who could as well as be presenting weather news.

Rajiv Katra said...

I am looking forwarded to the channel too. But no luck till now.

Anonymous said...

Trust me, you are better of not seeing it.... its is the biggest let down and quite far from your analysis of it being in a position to thrash cnbc - saw it for the first time today and here are some very obvious disasters:

1) the font, look, feel is so not happening - some one with a very poor judgement of aesthetics would have approved that overall screen look - its sad - looks worse than Zee business and cnbc awaaz
2) the music is terribly sad and not at all appealing to the ear
3) the two anchors on the 9 o'clock show are the worst possible on this time band across news channels - their voice modulation /sound is almost irritating
4) I would have though the look of the anchors would have been nice and clean - its the worst wardrobe i have seen
5) The promos on the anchors are very sad - they have managed to make damini kumari look like a 1960's model...her styling, look everything is so how to put it - behnji like
6) the channel just has no energy or sense of a leader
7) anchoring is so amateur - its so obvious these are people more comfortable in print than on camera - saw their Brand equity episode - the same journalist sonali krishna always appeared so intelligent in her features - when you see her anchor the show you almost convinced she could not be the same person writing the stories in print.... its also so obvious that many of the print guys they put on air are so uncomfortable and out of place
8) when i used to read andy mukhejee's column he appeared so smart and even looked nice - see the promo and you will also conclude he should have just stayed as a picture in the column -

My expectations too were high given time taken to launch and also fact its coming from ET - its clearly a very mediocre product.... if i were ET now i would have first done a soft launch - then had a high decible launch - they are lucky its not being seen anywhere currently - if it was, everyone who tuned in would have tuned out for a long time.... no doubt they will have to re-launch....

Anonymous said...

contrary to what you think, if people start watching the channel now in its current avtaar, they certainly will lose interest....lack of distribution has probably saved the day for ET now, they can try and better the product before people watch it....

Anonymous said...

forget about integrated newsrooms and ET Now not being visible, the news is that times group has started hiring. expect some shuffling in the biz news space in next one month

Anonymous said...

boss, you have not been posting anything substantial of late. there is so much happening in media

Anonymous said...

Hi K,

Have you heard story on NewsX.... http://www.indiantelevision.com/headlines/y2k9/june/june339.php

78 ppl out.

Veena said...

It has a lot to catchup with other popular channels and in first glance - it barely would rate 3/10 for overall appeal.

However just a begining and you never know what all they could come up to - and perhaps get a lot more TRP ratings since they control so much on the media front!

Thx
Veena / pubdomains.com

Anonymous said...

I think among all ET Now anchors Paramita is the best... she gives a lot of energy to an otherwise dull morning hours

Arun Balaji said...

Haha...ET NOW has already beaten UTVi in its first week.

So either you guys have no clue what television should be or you guys are all smoking the same shit.

Anonymous said...

FYI, ARUN BALAJI, last weeks TAM ratings show that ET is the fourth channel contrary to what u think.... product is pathetic and that's a fact - using the might of ET they managed to pull through budget day but lets see what happens everyday.... it clearly does not have what it takes it will remain a marginal player till Times realises its just not worth it!

Anonymous said...

after the first list of 4 journalists retrenched in ET bombay bureau, another list of 9 more seems to be getting finalised for next week..If ET NOW doesnt pick up in a month, 4-5 faces may disappear from their screen too..

Anonymous said...

Talk about planted stories. July 14th Business Standard took yet another plant from Fortis about his fictional Medicity which is barely off the ground. Shivinder Singh Fortis claims they will be functioning by next year. Then they put a picture of Dr Naresh Trehan's Medicity (14 floors up)with a misleading caption as if it was the Fortis building. Byline is 'BS Reporter'? Who is that? Fortis? Sad that Business Standard's standard of journalism has dropped so low!

Nandan said...

Amazing to see the Stir ET NOW has created in the ranks.... the docile elephant is getting threatened.

Atleast the Brand show on ET NOW is exciting...as compared to the drab show on CNBC which is way past it's expiry date.

Anonymous said...

AM seeing ET NOW for quite some time. And i find this channel has got all the potential to pull cnbc pants down!... Back to back EXCLUSIVES!! and they were really exclusive as i switched to CNBC , Mitali and udayan were talking about some share on how it gonna react today!.. while ET was talking to A hell a lot of CEOs and MDs.. I must say SALAAAM!

Anonymous said...

wow! i loved ET NOW. ITS too good.