I must say this is a honest, personal review & in no way intended to harm, or offend anyone, whatsoever.
Coverage - Breadth & Depth: This channel covers quite a punch in terms of breadth, from stock markets to indian mfg industry, to stock-analyst shows to up-&-coming people (young turks), but I must say that it revolves basically around the stock-market, what with the continuous bull & bear rally stories that keep hovering in your eyes every 5 min... of late, it has started to add new shows to address many other segments of the indian industry as well - like meetings with CEOs, B-school quiz shows etc. Still, it has a lot of catching up to do as compared to respected channels like CNBC, Bloomberg etc, this side of the atlantic. Depth-wise, it does cover stock mkts well, but apart from this segment, it pales in research & business mgmt content In would say!!!! There is never a reference to international business mgmt seminars, global trade bodies, or talk about giant economies affecting the indian common man ever, forget about wall-street, LSE, or Harvard.... it doesnt seem to have enough of either: many business analysts for researching other segments, or its hosts simply dont know much about some segments! (May we also add that some indian sectors still are using 80s technologies till now) Also, its a pity why do they always come up with up-coming stars only in the s/w industry only & that too somewhere in bangalore!!!! God, give me a break!!!! I do respect s/w industry, but let me tell you its more of cost-cutting for Us firms, hence they outsource & not because they dont have enough qualified people in the west, or that they are dying for that ’aiyyo’ kinda spectacled b’lore chap. Never!!! They have even better qualified people in west, but they get the work done from cheap guys instead of expensive full-time employees who have to be paid so many perks & benefits also!!!! They think of indian chaps as refined software coolies & not with the same respect as they would to a consultt from EDS, Wall-Street, or McKinsey!!!!!!
Hosts & Anchors: The most time is covered by Senthil chengalvarayan (he is reasonably good at his shows), Udayan mukherjee (this one does a lot of research before talking - nice analysis), & the other hosts... I have big question as to why all the new reporters or hosts they hire are south indian only... arrghh...dont tell me they couldn’t find other good-looking hosts who were equally talented!!! I dont mean to criticise god-given features, but one should have pleasant personalities giving the news to the business viewer so he listens & doesnt run away to another channel!!! do they think other people dont have brains or something????? It looks so politicised & yuck to see those ladies, sometimes not even able to host the interviews elegantly, & they still promote it everywhere..... one can see thru the hiring politics, you dont need analysis for that man!!!! If you watch this channel for long time, you will see one spectacled lady from mumbai trying to undercut & cut-short the news of another old-timer lady host... its just so visible. you dont need brains to understand such things!!!! I dont know who is doing so, but its really boring, lifeless & real ugly, it really puts the viewer away from tv....god...pls replace that lady host of trend-mill...we can’t bear!!
Show Themes & Contents: Improved. of late, it has started to show up....but in channels like Bloomberg & CNBC (us), they show actual economist analysis of actual govt decisions, lot of markets around the world at once, & actual company results for investors, critical in-depth analysis of financial decisions... its an entirely different ball-game. Also, this channel never takes people to visit firms out of india. I don’t know if they dont allocate budget or are they thinking that the avg viewer would be happy watching indian ceos & bangalore chaps and bear ugly talk-show hosts & boring stock & commodity markets for 2-3 yrs in a row??? This is a big short-sightedness that they dont understand & it will be exploited by other rival channels, most of which sprung up in last 2-3 mths. No stupid businessman (apart from smalltime grocery shop owners in age gp 16-18) would be content watching shows & indian content only.... what about MNCs that work around india in gulf, singapore, other global biggies’ decisions that affect the common man, what abt global trade bodies that give so much business & jobs to the country, what about the giant chinese economy nearby, or for that matter gulf, or singaporean economies (god... pls buy cheap online air tickets people & cover those areas) !!! Not a zilch of coverage there!!! Its really boring, & stupid to see it more than 1-2 weeks, as all the time you keep listening of stocks, & funds even though you may be a barber, richshaw-driver, grocer, or CEO & never invested in stocks!!! People watch it because they dont have many choices & not because they are madly in love with it (though this channel was improving over time)!!!
Progress of the channel: This is one channel that has actually added content across time....other channels may just put up some flashy dance shows, recycled film-awards, or those boring song-&-music la-la-la-la shows, but this channel has actually aded new content shows over time, even though they may give headache at times!!! They also launched hindi version of the channel, which I think is a first attempt & will go down well with semi-urban & rural viewers (atleast)!
Inside Story: The name of their website ’’moneycontrol.com’’ seems to have been picked up from msn money’s website ’’ http://www.Moneycentral.com’’ whch has been hugely successful in the west. It has a lot more items, lot of content, money-saving tips, tax-rules, & in short things that directly affect YOU - the customer.... its a long way before this one actually begins to have that much of recall value & weight in atleast the east asian world.... also their boring & ugly looking anchors puts one off!!!!
(review details: please ignore ’movies’ word in prog. quality criteria)
(note: this is a personal experience based on std user expectations & need not invoke biased comments from members)