There was a time when we had no news channel in India . But things have changed since then. Now we have at least 7 Indian news channels on a national basis . So obviously the competition is intense and not surprisingly these channels are willing to go any length to capture more and more eyeballs. The most successful Indian news channel if the TRP’s (television rating points) are to be believed is the ‘India Today’ funded “ Aaj Tak “. I am not surprised because India is the land of spices and Aaj tak being a masala channel is bound to do well. But I am certainly no fan of this one.
Aaj tak is one of the worst news channels we have in India. Reasons ?
Firstly , all news channels have more or less the same stories. If anything worth reporting happens anywhere in the country or even abroad all the news channels will head to report it . So how come Aaj Tak is different ? Well, the believe in sensationalizing the events . That’s their USP . Take an example : A few days ago a minister from Chattisgarh was caught on tape accepting money . All the channels beamed the tape and lots of discussions and interviews happened after this . Then everybody moved on but not Aaj Tak. A lady reporter actually went to the Hotel room where the tape was shot and pointed the camera to a sofa and said “ This is the sofa on which Mr J_ _ _ _ sat when everything was taped. The camera was placed exactly opposite to the sofa and had Mr J sat somewhere else he would have been able to escape from being caught on the camera “. Can you believe this ? What kind of a news reporting is this ? Do we really want to know on which damn sofa this guy sat ? Just consider the useless effort of this reporter in tracking the hotel room and all.
The latest issue to have caught the fancy of the news editors of Aaj tak is the leaking of the CAT papers. They keep asking inane questions to CEO’s and Managing directors. Sample this – Do you think your firm should change it’s recruitment policy now that this scandal broke out ? Uff …….
Secondly , the production quality of the channel is extremely tacky . The graphics , the background music etc is very bad . Most importantly their reporters and news anchors are simply irritating. Remember Deepak “ unshaven “ Chaurasia ? Thank god he is no longer there . He has moved on to DD news. Even if they are reporting a mundane event like the Municipal elections they will present it in such a way as if they are reporting World war 3 .
Thirdly , they have some really irritating shows on their channels like “ Ho Na Saka “ and “ Jurm Aaj Tak “ . The idea is good but the execution is absolutely pathetic.
So , guys if you want to hear some juicy - masala news head straight to Aak Tak .