 Now moving on to a very interesting session and for that I invite Mr. Ruhail Amin from Exchange for Media to join us on stage for a one-on-one conversation with Mehraj Dube, Vice President Z Media Corporation Limited, on the new League of National Channels. Mehraj Dube is an award-winning broadcaster and is currently leading the marketing department at Z Media Corporation. The news business of SL Group with 14 news TV news channels including Veon and Z news. Apart from marketing and brand communications Mehraj's core responsibility involves staring orbit shifting mission and innovation and change management program for news channels for Z media. I request Mr. Amin and Mr. Dube to please come and join me here on stage. Thank you. First of all I see Mr. Singh here. Welcome sir. It was great having you at the jury meet. We met there. So moving away from brand building in different sectors to the broadcast medium I have with me Mr. Mehraj Dube, Vice President Z Media Corporation Limited and we're gonna talk about brand building in his domain and they what they did recently is that in a cluttered environment where you have 800 channels they launch one more. I mean it needs guts to do that right? He has done that. So I want to ask you first that what was the thought behind launching one more channel when you already have a cluttered market? Thank you to hell for having me here but yes so many news channels and so many TV channels but you know one one basic behavior from news viewers is you know TV screen is one at a time unlike a newspaper. There's always a scope for another page, another page, page after page something that a newspaper can't do. I mean this is in addition to all those established principles of having one more brand we're getting to one extra segment and there are news channels which are you know as we know them national news channels and we also have many some of them but behind Z Hindustan the idea was looking beyond Delhi Mumbai the story about news which was very much about Delhi and the national scene when we look beyond we found a scope to do a new channel which is Z Hindustan and it's doing pretty good just about a year now and it's you know it's like ultimately you know what we do at Z Media with these 14 news channels and and many more web brands news brands what we do is we tell stories at the end of the day and we have many more stories to tell you stories that are beyond Delhi and Mumbai stories from the nook and corners of this country they are great heroes they are great stories all over the country and this is one Hindi news channel which from this inception was also distributed in South India as well because they are viewers there also so it's all about storytelling for us and why not have Z Hindustan as well so just about a year and 50 million viewers are logging on every week and and mind you reach in in TV jargon is about that many people actually log in for at least a minute unlike reaching digital availability accounts so so that was a big support we've garnered from viewers and thanks to all brand managers and and market years you know what they do they have really segmented the society to many segments so there are many more segments to be catered to beyond our flagship channel Z news right tell me one thing when we talk about brand building how much is the contribution of pedigree do you think because Z has a pedigree and it was easier to launch another product or is the is there a differentiated content that is driving it how would you explain it so I wouldn't say no yes it's perhaps maybe we have a strength and resources but if I you know if I say that yes it's very easy for Z to launch another channel that would be underestimating the power of viewers because news viewer right now is very smart very very suave in terms of news consumption they are very opinionated they can yeah they like transparency they are very fast to see your leaning so you know a neutrality of content so before of news viewer it's really difficult to dance that they really know these steps well so it's not easy for anyone whether your Z or whoever you are so I mean you really have to like I said we tell stories and we have to tell stories which are fitting our space and which are I wouldn't say always liked by people but yes stories which need to be told stories which which need a heart to tell our viewers so it also appears that with the launch of Z Hindustan you're competing with our own channels you have Z news and you're beyond is there a competition now I mean are you kind of eating into each other's space with this I mean how is this panning out I don't know if you if you only want to talk about Z Hindustan good good for me but so you know well it's with brand ma'al brand experts sitting here I wouldn't need to answer that so there's always space for a new brand and no we don't compete in a sense that you know it's as well they are well differentiated channels Z Hindustan let's say you know if I were to just count numbers is doing very good in UP rural which has a very high weightage on the charts so it is also doing in very good in many other rural markets and also without losing much of urban markets so you know that's a struggle for many many traditional old news channels that they are either king in urban markets or very good in rural markets but somehow we've been able to find a mix with Z Hindustan which is working well for Suresh let's see let's hope it goes goes well in the future so this regional debate has been I mean as the buzz word regional is all over I mean content making what kind of growth are you looking from the regional genre itself the regional space I mean do you have to get into really local hyper local mode to kind of leverage that growth or are you just using the Hindi part of it yeah so two ways to answer that maybe I could answer the Hindi part first in a many more households are connected now businesses are growing countries growing as we know it of course there different definitions of growth for different people but you know unlike in a English news space which is you know struggling to go beyond five six million households every week the Hindi gives you or regional channels give give you a lot bigger market to address to to join hands with and maybe I mean in one line to answer your question if the growth in TV space is going to come it's going to come from regional so who you know the regional players are sometimes of course your national brands and regional brands will compliment each other it's not like a so-called regional news viewer does not watch any English or Hindi news channel which is which is in national space or only catering to national stories so for us we just stick to telling stories which fit the screen fit the time fit the audience I think that solves the puzzle so yes some people think regionals are growing at the cost of nationals I don't think that way and and some people say there's no space for more national news channels I don't think that way like my newspaper for example you know screen TV screen is one screen at a time one page at a time and if a viewer has keen eye to to maybe address you know get more pages here is this channel here is that channel of course you can't you you know you have to be very targeted you have to be segmented and all those principles would still apply I've been given strict instructions for ten minutes were exhausted seven so I have two more questions one is the move towards digital you know everyone is grappling with it and you have your prune that traditional media still has the strength to go on with the launch of another channel but how are you looking at digital and you know kind of building on that big conversation around digital how is your new product or your overall strategy at digital you know how are you looking at digital that's why so you know I mean the real way of looking at news in digital space would be to not really you know become victim of the medium I think it's all about great brand relation with the viewers or news consumers beyond a point they they don't they don't remember if they watched a story on TV or on digital so I think we're moving into that space now where story is a story story is more important brand is more important who told you that story was it credible was it trustworthy did you have a respect for the guy who told you that story where did you get it from etc etc there are there are many parameters like I said in the beginning people are so smart now they are suave news consumers they know who are you where are you coming from what are you telling them they have various options very good market yes but digital has done so well for for our news business 150 million page views and and brands doing very good in certain markets and a great recall and more and more validation happens so little bit of it you read on on the digital and then you want to watch the whole video on TV what you watched or your friend watched last night on TV you want to read today he's sharing with you so you also follow us for some you know very simple you know sort of a thought flash scan analyze share if you give four opportunities to your viewers they they love you they have a respect for you they trust your brand it may be digital it may be TV yes but you have to you have to be strong in all those mediums to survive as a news brand it's very demanding now that's definitely I mean digital has pushed broadcasters to be all I mean have that shareability their interactivity you know present which brings me to the point that you raised that amidst 800 channels now 800 is a lot of channels do you think we still have space to include more channels do you think there is enough potential for traditional media especially the news genre to grow do you still have feel that what are your thoughts it's tough to answer what will happen in future especially when so many experts are sitting but you know let's let's take it from the market quality or market nature of this market we are in India the news market is so many communities of audiences sitting out there you can always choose one or two or three or four of them to cater to through your new channel so I wouldn't really comment on the number many of them would die perhaps God forbid but you know it's it's a business of the fittest so yes you if you can tell you know it's like I follow the same thing we are a storyteller so if we tell the story which people believe which you think you think there is audience for so yes it's going to be tough it's going to be more constructed more structured unlike say 10 15 years when I used to be a correspondent and you know there's only two to three news channels you had Z you had star news you had NDTV and you just walk on the street and every household knew you are a correspondent so that's that's not the case anymore there and so that's why and now we have a la carte so you know people can pick and choose which channel they want in the bouquet from cable guy or from a DTS platform they can just pay per channel so that means there is this more you know transparency now in the business availability is there wide choices there and one could just choose from you know all these hundreds of channels so yes you have to survive and you have to do well to be there so there was a small clip can see that so when I said you should look beyond Delhi Mumbai we found stories and we found a way to tell those stories maybe we could if we could play that clip but yeah I guess my head in the school via and this is a piece of cake and I'm gonna go and see you now and I'm a good me for you are key click are you a good thing I'm going to be hard with the guy I was this guy I'm a little bit hard for me I'm a little bit hard for me I'm a little bit hard for me I'm a little bit hard for me In the streets of Kolkata, from Sakri to the streets of Rajneeti in Delhi, Mamata Banerjee wrote the new story of the struggle and became the first female chief minister of the state. Ardaas, who worked in a steel factory, was the chief minister of the state of Bharati Jharkhand and now he is the chief minister. After leaving the palace, Captain Amrinda The battlefield of the war has put an end to the struggle and the second time, he returned to Punjab and became the chief minister of the state. In Bihar, Natesh Kumar is now a part of the Andolan. The Andolan of development. A young man in the lap of the palace is now the chief minister of the state. Every state has a story of India. Every heart has a story of India. Zee Hindustan We can clap if you want. So I won't bore you further. This is my final last question. We can see the traces of elections somewhere and the next year is big on elections. What does it mean for news channels? Sonia, this is my last question. So I wouldn't say these are just election stories. When we thought they are heroes in all parts of India we thought we could pick a few faces. Some of them are here to tell you a story of India which is traditionally not being told because all newspapers and news media, even news media works from Delhi. So that's the way of counting all those transformational stories through some of these politicians. We have a series of this film where different heroes are coming. But yes, election definitely a huge opportunity for us business-wise. I don't know. But people when they say they watch news, they want to know opinions, they want to know what is the future of India, they want to have a say. I think TV space is going to create a lot of healthy interaction I hope and in a democracy that we want to be. We all aspire to be the greatest democracy and we claim to be the biggest democracy. I think we can reach our truest potential with a strong TV news industry or sector or rather service. And so it's not just test for politicians, the coming elections, it's also a test for news media on how strongly we advocate people's voice on TV screen. News media always scores. Thank you so much for this short and wonderful conversation. Thank you.