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News Channels Are Becoming Entertainment Today

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News Channels Are Becoming Entertainment Today
Have you wondered how much more difficult it has become to tell the difference between entertainment and news channels on television? After all, the television channel business, worth Rs18,000 crore in advertisement and subscription fees, is dominated by the entertainment genre. And print, with Rs14,800 crore in revenue, is still largely about news.
This is despite the fact that there are more news channels than those of any other genre. Earlier this year, in response to a question in Parliament, the minister for information and broadcasting announced that there are 201 news and current affairs TV channels and 180 non-news and current affairs TV channels uplinked from India. Also waiting in the pipeline are applications of 97 private satellite news and current affairs TV channels and 85 private satellite non-news and current affairs TV channels. Then there are 67 private satellite TV channels uplinked from abroad—14 are news and current affairs TV channels and 53 are non-news and current affairs TV channels.
I find particularly funny the way we classify channels as “news and current affairs” and “non-news and current affairs”. For the sake of definition as given in the policy documents: “News & Current Affairs channel means a channel which has any element of news and current affairs in its programme content.” This definition has served as the point of entry of news channels into the entertainment genre.
Also Read PN Vasanti’s earlier columns
News and current affairs channels need special clearance by the ministry. They have to be accredited to the Press Information Bureau, cannot have foreign equity exceeding 26%, and can only have Indians in important decision-making positions. News has been always been a highly sensitive genre as far as the government is concerned and there is currently some amount of debate on the contentious issue of news in community radio. However, in the case of television, the genre of news has taken a different meaning altogether. The
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