MUMBAI: The year 2014 saw a landmark in the Indian political system with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) coming to power with a landslide majority.
Since then, all eyes have been on the new government’s moves and with the budget just a couple of weeks away, news channels especially the ones which cover business have once again gone into a tizzy. It is time for them to decipher the next phase.
A channel that prides itself in being a part of the biggest financial network in the world is setting a benchmark for the upcoming budget. ‘Will They Walk the Talk’, essentially Prime Minister Narendra Modi and finance minister Arun Jaitley, is the question that Bloomberg TV India will seek answers to through its three week long special budget programming.
Bloomberg TV India editor Vivek Law points out that the new BJP government is riding on high expectations from both Indian as well as global investors. “The budget is the first detailed statement that will be very closely watched. We have heard the government’s campaign and manifesto that clearly said that once in power, they will resurrect the economy. Stock market is all about the foreign institutional investors (FII) and this market is only standing on the legs of the money that FIIs are bringing in. It is very important how they perceive the performance of the government and what this budget will give them,” he says.
Keeping this in mind, the channel has decided to begin its budget programming from 30 June, dedicating 60 to 70 per cent of time addressing the global audience. In the run up to the budget which is fixed for 10 July, the various programmes will focus on India Inc, global view, youth and personal finance wherein discussion will be on what should be the government’s agenda and post the budget it will analyse what Jaitley has put forth for year 2014-15. “For the last few years, Indian investors have not been participating in the equity market much. They are now keen to know if it is time to get back in the overall growth. Once the budget is announced we will discuss whether they have really managed to bring back the retail investor into the market,” adds Law.
Shows will focus primarily on the global investor with Vivek Law, Harsha Subramaniam, Anupriya Nair and Priyank Lakhia leading the pack. Panel discussions both in and out of studio have been arranged in Mumbai/Delhi, youth discussions in campuses and market and corporate shows in public locations. On 10 July, Bloomberg TV India says it will have global investors and experts from Hong Kong, Dubai, Sydney, London, Tokyo, Singapore and the US on board stating whether the budget sticks to its word or not.
The channel will also be leveraging its Bloomberg Terminal that has close to 350,000 subscribers world over and allows them to watch the channel live. “Given the fact that we are a JV, we have access to the entire network & content and that’s a huge advantage. If you are outside India and you want cutting edge live information, you can only get it from our terminal,” says Law.
Even though focus is on global investors, sponsors will not be very different with the primary sponsors from BFSI, automobiles and the consumer durables sector who are being approached. A 360 degree marketing campaign created by Triton Communications has been designed including outdoor, TV, print, online, social media, radio, ground activations and PR to promote the budget programming with spends close to Rs 80 lakhs to Rs 90 lakhs, the channel says.
Since 2012 the broadcaster has aimed at positioning the channel as an extension of its parent channel Bloomberg. Law is certain that it is not a day trader channel. “You will not get tips or any buy/sell calls on our channel. We reach out to the aspirational and influential audience, who are not necessarily rich. It could be the judiciary, political establishment, bureaucracy, top corporate professionals or global investors. This is in sync with the way our channel is world over,” he says. To add to this, changes have also been incorporated in the channel’s design and more are to be expected, soon.
