 We have a fireside chat with Mehraj Tube, he is our VP, marketing ZNews with Neeta Nair. She's special correspondent impact magazine, exchange for media group. I would request both of them to please come and join me on stage. Good morning. Govaheewan, welcome to both of you, the stage is yours. You know, being a 90s child, the word ZNews brings with it a lot of nostalgia for me, having grown up on all kinds of fabulous shows on Z. So I'm very, very happy to be here with Mehraj today, who represents the network, although the news side of it. Mehraj, you're part of an organization which is about 25 years old. It was one of the first networks to ride on the satellite wave in the country, and it has diversified since then and how. Tell me, as one of the oldest and one of the biggest news media companies in the country today, is it that much more difficult for you to maintain your credibility in an era of fake news and social media? Thank you, Neeta. Thanks, Ifarem, for having me here at India Brand Conclave. And you know, not just for 90s children, we also are watched by children of 2000 and the later ones. My children also watch ZNews. And yes, so legacy is a big thing. It was always difficult to be, you know, to maintain credibility and use it as a choice or choose it as a business option. And we've always chosen that. So we don't find it as a difficult thing, so to say. We see it more as a basis on which this business is built. And we go an extra mile to maintain that credibility. Now all the more like you mentioned, there are millions of shares and fake news items on social media and otherwise. And you know, yes, we are predominantly a TV news channel, as you know ZNews. But we're competing with every other space because viewer doesn't really care which medium. He is interested in news and credible news. And at the end of the day, we are storytellers. So if story, who is narrating that story? Is the story true or not? It's credible, believable, all that really matters. So yes, we have to go and try a little extra every time to maintain that and to care for it. At the moment, there are about 22 national Hindi news channels in the country. And even the big ones from the English side like Republic have announced their foray into the Hindi news market. Is that worrisome for even an established brand like Zee? So yeah, maybe it makes my job or my team's job tougher, that's all. But I wouldn't really say worrisome because we don't bother much on what others are doing. We rather focus on who we are and what are we doing or what is the value that we are giving to our viewers and what is the expectation that our viewer is carrying. So I think that's more important. But that said, I think the viewer is, so you know, 22 or more national channels, there's just one number. What is more important is that viewers are much more smarter now. So I think as a former journalist, I could say that maybe almost 18, 20 years ago when you were doing a news story, it was more inspired by a newspaper. You wanted to stand tall next to a newspaper because the newspaper was what people believed in. So you always wanted to be credible because you know, even as a news reporter, you carry a camera to someone for an interview or something. They say, yes, I read it in the newspaper, it's true. So they'll tell you. But who are those days? So it's actually a storyteller's job, a journalist's job or as an organization of our job to maintain their credibility. And it's 22 or 200 or many more to come all the best to them. But we are here to stay and we are here to win. So that's what matters. You know, another difference that has come up is today most of the biggest news stories have been broken on social media. And then it comes to TV. Do you say digital platforms are your biggest competitors now or are the news channels? All right. So I think that's more of, you know, I mean, it's people have different takes on that. Like I said, people don't remember where did they watch or see or read that story first. What matters is who is telling the story. And what matters is how they're telling the story, how credible it is. So yes, social media has sort of created the clutter or the crowd and number of options are more or people are overloaded with information. So actually it's good for people like us because they are good and people believe in us and it's easier for someone who's been outstanding. So honestly, so I see it that way. So a good brand with good storytellers, experienced editors and unique strength to reach out to millions of people every day is actually a great strength. And that's what, you know, that's why you're seeing ZNews, you know, breaking the barriers and the number one is changing, week after week after week after week. So that's not happening. That's why it's happening because ZNews is working, people like ZNews. But how are you leveraging digital for ZNews? Sorry? How are you leveraging the digital? Oh, we have very strong digital presence. I don't really get into the numbers but like ZNews.com is one of the oldest news portals, news websites in India. And we have 11 digital brands in news or news related topics and they complement our portfolio. So we believe in TV and digital. We don't see a fight among them. We don't see one replacing the other. At Z, we believe in digital and TV are here to stay. And you know, if you take US's example where OTT is very hot or OTT is very popular, the numbers of television sets are not reducing drastically. What is reducing is the cable. So how you, you still watch news on TV but not through a cable. It could be an OTT. It could be a smart TV. It could be through, through on the web basically but on TV. So that's not really, you know, a place to be or a reason to be worried about. What we should be worrying or what we should be careful about is how we tell stories and in times to come how we cater to more and more news viewing communities, different age brackets. Like you said, someone is from 90s kid, has a different expectation from a news channel. Someone who a kid of today has a very, very different expectations. And that's why we follow the six lenses principle or philosophy of content selection because we want to reach out to not just typical male leader in a family but we also cater to home makers, students, professionals, consumers and the stories around citizens and farmers. So you know, just about 15, 20 years ago in a newsroom people didn't care about farmers because they thought there were a couple of million cable viewers and they are all sitting in big cities. So these news channels were catering to them. But that's not, that's not the story now. Nearly 60 percent, you know, viewers come from rural areas and that's actually a strength. We are reaching so many towns which are, you know, below one lakh population. So if you can cater to all these communities, your job is done and that's what we are trying. You know, a big problem associated with news channels today is the lack of differentiation of content. You know, how differently are you going to show a Sushma Swaraj receiving the Russian president. Everybody is going to cut to that feed and unlike a GEC, you don't really have an option to create a premium content which the advertisers will be happy buying. So do you, how does a news channel rise up to that particular challenge? Right, I think that's a very valid, you know, concern. So you have, let's say, you have one Prime Minister and that many news, so many news channels and when Prime Minister is speaking something really important, we want to take it to, we want to carry it to our viewers. So yes, all these screens look the same, so to say, but that's where the, you know, the work of a journalist or a news organization is seen because how you are treating, how you are analyzing, what are you talking about, what is unsaid in a speech? What was the timing, what is the occasion, why Prime Minister chose to say something at what occasion, from which, you know, which place or things like that, or what follows that speech or all that questions viewers have. Like I said, viewers are really, really smart these days. They can find out like this if you are not true to your story or if you're not, if you haven't done enough work on your story. So treatment and credibility really matters, matters more than ever before. You know, going back to GECs, you know, the kind of ad rates that GECs get and the ones that, you know, the Indian news channels get, there's a Zameen Asman kaffir kyaase se. But if reach was the only reason why they are commanding that much of a premium in ad rates, then why are English news channels getting much better rates than Hindi news channels? I'm glad you asked that question. I'm sure a lot of people who make decisions, who make buying decisions are sitting here or will all will watch this video, hopefully. So that's, yeah, that's not a new fight, but now we are trying to convince our advertiser about the engagement that we give when people's attention levels are very, very high is when they are watching a news item. So the engagement that we provide is very unique. No, I, I restrain from saying any names of GEC shows because we also have a GEC in our portfolio. But, you know, so no Nagin or no Bahu or no Sas can give you that engagement that news can because news is all about surprises about people's everyday concerns and numbers show amazing. Value you get by advertising on news platforms. Yes, sometimes selection of a right slot or a time schedule or a show is important and we are here to help people on that. So if you're talking about pricing, yes, I think Indian news industry has a long way to go in terms of convincing advertisers about value of news media as an advertising medium. And I think people are growing up to, you know, and rising up to that situation where they see and a lot of our partners have benefited. Whether they are FMCG companies or recently we're doing a big, big series of events and, you know, award series with SAP for example. So why would they come and connect with Hindi news media? But they do, they're connecting with so many entrepreneurs in the heartland of country that they're finding it unbelievable how Hindi news media can connect them to so many future potential buyers for SAP. So with due permission, I hope they don't mind naming them here. But, you know, so it's really a lot of work to be done on that side, but no complaints. I think we will get our price. We're getting there anyways. So it's the festive season for the new channels just going to begin with five state elections and one massive general elections. Tell me what kind of growth do you see for Z-media in the next six months? Well, so we are a publicly listed company. So I'll be very careful in saying any growth projection. All those projections we talk about when we have our investor or analyst meets or in our annual reports. But in general, one estimate says the news as a genre in India is likely to double up in two to three years, if no. And that's a big incentive. And but of course, how this growth will come and who will grab it first depends on capabilities and strengths, some of them we have. But it would also depend on the consumer behavior, how much time people spend on digital or on TV, what time they do, how, what distribution medium they choose or will news media have that kind of marketing strength to be able to reach out to many more audiences. And I think some of it is going to change after December 29th, because the consumer will have the ultimate right of choosing channels, a la carte, on its distribution medium. He can pick and choose whichever channel he wants for declared price at a maximum retail price. And so we see it as great growth opportunities, whether elections or no elections. Any ways India is growing and there's lots to be, you know, conquered. We have a fabulous election season and thank you so much for being with us today. Thank you, Neeta. Thank you, exchange for media. Thank you. I would request you both to please stay back. Neeta, I would request you to please hand over a token of appreciation to sir. Thank you, Mr. Dubey, for being here with us this morning and for this very interesting session that we had. Thank you, Neeta, to you as well.