Elections and the news media

The counting day of the general elections will bring a nice high for news channels. But steady viewership and revenues will require more fundamental changes

What the Indian Premier League or IPL is to sports channels, elections are to news channels. They bring a happy spike in viewership. For news channels, spikes usually come from an attack, a bomb scare et al. And they can’t always be monetised for two reasons. One, you can’t predict them. Two, increasing ad time or doing anything to maximise revenues could put the audiences off. But pushing for better rates and more money during elections can be planned and is kosher. 

By tomorrow, we will know the results of the general elections that were just held in India. And the