Executive Dossier
‘Aaj Tak will break even within three years’ : G. Krishnan-Ex. Director, TV Today Network
TV Today Network executive director G Krishnan is no stranger to television. A print media professional for nearly 14 years, he was in charge of a proposal in the early nineties to launch a cable network for The Times of India group in partnership with TCI, a plan that was later aborted. He later took responsibility for Times Television which procured time slots on state-owned broadcaster DD and later took to producing events such as the Femina Miss India Awards.
In 1995, Krishnan joined leading media publishing group India Today and went on to produce a daily TV news bulletin for national broadcaster Doordarshan called Aaj Tak which gained rapidly in popularity, and was one of the top news shows on DD for nearly five years. That daily show has evolved into a full-fledged news channel with Krishnan at the helm. Aaj Tak TV, despite its pedigree, is facing a tough time in the market place with not many cable TV systems carrying the channel. The network nevertheless made a rash of announcements in the media saying that Aaj Tak was doing very well, thank you. Indiantelevision.com’s Harsha Khot interviewed Krishnan via email. Excerpts:
How do you rate Aaj Tak vis-?-vis Star News and Zee News? On a weekly factored average, what are your daily viewership figures?
Aaj Tak as a brand has been there for over five years now. As a 30-minute programme on Doordarshan, Aaj Tak used to reach out to three million C&S viewers daily. Aaj Tak has been doing extremely well since its launch as a 24-hour channel. The weekly cumulative viewership for our channel has gone up from 138,6000 to 5,230,000 in a month’s time (week ending 3 February), a phenomenal increase of almost 400 per cent. Aaj Tak has managed to capture an audience share of 33 per cent among the news channels as against 42 per cent for Zee News and 18 per cent for Star News. Our average daily viewership for the week ending 3 February is 60,000 as against 32,000 for Star News and 76,000 for Zee News. The channel has created a loyal audience base with the Aaj Tak viewer spending 114 minutes on the channel as against 33 minutes on Star News and 52 minutes on Zee News.
Where do you have the maximum viewership, using a state wise break-up?
We have got a good response from almost the entire Hindi-speaking market. However, north and west India contribute the maximum share of viewers for Aaj Tak. Your channel has been getting a fantastic initial but are you confident that the kind of growth rates in viewership that are being witnessed will be sustained in the long term? What are the TRPs that you expect, say six months to a year down the line? The reason for such a great response is our easily comprehendible and in-depth news coverage coupled with state of the art technology and graphics. We expect to maintain our current growth rates of viewership for at least five to six months, till we are able to achieve the desired levels of connectivity. The long-term task would be to maintain the high levels of viewership that we expect to achieve.
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‘Aaj Tak has managed to deliver real news, really fast to its viewers’ |
Have you set any goals for the channel in 2001? What are the revenue projections you have?
Over the last five years, Aaj Tak has been strengthening its market share in terms of both viewership & revenue. We have therefore certainly set both viewership & revenue goals for 2001. Aaj Tak began its journey on 17 July 1995 as a 30 minute programme on Doordarshan’s Metro channel and created a loyal audience base both in all TV as well as C&S homes. Our existence in the Indian news scenario has lent us the extra advantage as a 24-hour channel. Aaj Tak has managed to deliver the real news, really fast to its viewers. The same has been possible due to our regularly updated and easily comprehendible news coverage coupled with state of the art graphics and technology. Not only will our channel deliver reach, on account of our highly attractive and incentivised rate card, we will also deliver high opportunity to see (OTS) at extremely cost-effective rates. Based on the above strengths, we are confident of achieving a revenue figure of Rs 400 million in Year One itself. Given the total ad revenue of over Rs 65 billion, our target is an extremely reasonable 0.6 per cent of the total ad pie.
What has the investment in the 24-hour channel been? When do you see the channel reaching break-even status?
The Group has invested over Rs 600 million on technical infrastructure, for broadcasting and news gathering. A substantial amount of resources has been devoted to newsgathering in terms of building a widespread network of correspondents with appropriate technical support. Sizeable resources have also been allocated to broadcasting in terms of investing in dedicated lease lines, best digital uplinking equipment, outdoor broadcast vans etc. We also have the best lightweight cameras, non linear editing systems and dynamic graphic facilities. We plan to spend an additional Rs 200 million on strengthening our technical infrastructure over the next two years. The channel will break even in thee years time.
TV Today Network Limited has appointed Morgan Stanley for a valuation exercise. The company is planning to raise Rs 250 million by March 2001 by diluting 10 per cent of its equity. According to reports, the funds are to be used to upgrade technology and acquire modern equipment. The company is also planning to make a public offering by 2003. Could you tell us more about this?
A clarification here. We have not appointed Morgan Stanley for a valuation exercise. The company will raise Rs 250 million by giving 10 per cent of its equity to financial investors. This would be used to upgrade our technology. The company is planning to make a public offering by 2003.
You are also looking at a 24-hour business channel? Any idea as to when it will launch and how are you planning to raise funds for the project?
We will look at all opportunities after we stabilise the current 24-hour channel.
Executive Dossier
Game on, fame on as Good Game hunts India’s first global gaming star
New reality show puts Rs 1 crore prize and global spotlight on India’s gaming talent.
MUMBAI: Game faces on, pressure high India’s gaming ambitions are levelling up. Good Game, billed as the world’s first as-live global gaming reality show, has officially launched in India with a bold mission: to crown the country’s first Global Gaming Superstar.
Blending esports with mainstream entertainment, the show brings together competitive gaming, creativity and on-camera performance in a format that tests more than just joystick skills. Contestants will be judged on gameplay, screen presence and their ability to perform under pressure, reflecting how gaming has evolved from pastime to profession and pop culture currency.
Fronting the show are three high-profile ambassadors: actor and entrepreneur Samantha Ruth Prabhu, Indian cricket star Rishabh Pant, and gaming creator Ujjwal Chaurasia. The winner will take home Rs 1 crore ($100,000) among the largest prize pools for any Indian reality show along with the chance to represent India on a global stage.
Backed by a planned annual investment of up to Rs 100 crore, Good Game is also courting brand partners, promising a minimum reach of 500 million among India’s core youth audience. The creators position the show as a bridge between entertainment and interactive culture, offering long-format content, community engagement and commercial scale.
Auditions are now open to Indian citizens aged 18 and above, inviting amateur and professional gamers, creators and performers alike. Shortlisted candidates will be called for in-person auditions in Mumbai on 14 and 15 February, and in Delhi on 28 February and 1 March 2026.
With big money, big names and even bigger ambition, Good Game signals a shift in how India views gaming not just as play, but as performance, profession and prime-time spectacle.
Digital
SpotDraft hires new CMO and CFO to fuel global push for its AI contract platform
Alon Waks and Amit Sharma join as SpotDraft accelerates growth across key markets
INDIA: SpotDraft has strengthened its senior ranks as it gears up for faster global expansion, naming Alon Waks as chief marketing officer and Amit Sharma as chief financial officer. The appointments follow the firm’s $54 million Series B round earlier this year and mark a push to scale across the Americas, EMEA and India.
The AI-powered contract-lifecycle-management platform has posted 100 per cent year-on-year growth in customer acquisition, counting Apollo.io, IPSY, Mixpanel, Oyster and Panasonic among its global clients. The firm processes more than one million contracts annually, with volumes up 173 per cent and nearly 50,000 monthly active users.
Waks, a veteran of Kustomer, Bizzabo, CreatorIQ, LivePerson and ZoomInfo, will steer global marketing and category positioning as legal teams adopt AI-driven tools. Sharma, who has led finance across scaling tech firms since 2016, will guide financial strategy, investor relations and market expansion.
Both hires aim to sharpen SpotDraft’s bid for a larger slice of the fast-growing legal-tech market, expected to exceed $63 billion by 2032. Co-founder and chief executive Shashank Bijapur said the company is focused on scaling go-to-market operations in the Americas, deepening leadership in EMEA, and accelerating AI capabilities for general counsels and legal-operations leaders.
Clients report shorter deal cycles and better alignment between legal and business teams. “What used to take weeks now happens in days,” said Abnormal Security senior legal operations manager Susan Koenig. DeepL head of legal operations André Barrow, said SpotDraft has helped reframe legal “from a cost centre to a generator of revenue”.
Executive Dossier
Outdoor Ads Get Smarter as LOC8 Shifts OOH from Visibility to Attention
AI, dwell time and real-world vision are rewriting the rules of what outdoor ads can do.
MUMBAI: Out-of-home ads were once the wallflowers of marketing seen by everyone, noticed by few. But in an age where attention has become the world’s most fought-over currency, even billboards are getting a brain upgrade. Enter LOC8, OSMO’s AI-powered attention engine, quietly reshaping the old OOH playbook by measuring not just who could have looked at an ad, but who actually did. The shift is subtle but seismic: impressions are out, impact is in and data, not gut instinct, is calling the shots.
In a landscape where marketers question every rupee spent outdoors, LOC8 is turning lampposts, flyovers and traffic islands into precision-mapped attention laboratories. By crunching dwell time, visibility zones, perceptual size and real-world obstructions, the platform is dragging OOH into a future where creativity meets computer vision and where the best ideas aren’t just eye-catching, but eye-measured. From automotive facelifts to FMCG novelty and real estate trust-building, the message is clear, outdoor has stopped shouting and started listening. Indian Television Dot Com explores more about it in an Interview interview with OSMO co-founder Nipun Arora.
On how OSMO is shifting outdoor advertising from a visibility-led medium to an attention-led one through LOC8.
Traditional OOH has long been measured by visibility and impressions i.e how many people could see an ad. OSMO, through its proprietary AI platform LOC8, is shifting that narrative more towards likelihood of being noticed. Using computer vision and machine learning, LOC8 analyzes real-world video data to measure visibility zones, obstructions, dwell time and perceptual size; bringing precision to how attention is quantified outdoors. It moves the focus from mere impressions to quality of impressions, making OOH a data-verified, attention-led medium comparable to digital in accountability.
On how marketers can use LOC8’s dwell-time, visibility and perception insights to craft more effective, emotionally resonant OOH campaigns.
LOC8 helps brands understand how people truly experience outdoor media how long they look, from what distance, and under what conditions. By quantifying dwell time, visibility duration, and perceptual size; marketers can plan campaigns that align with real human viewing behavior. This empowers creative and strategy teams to design emotionally resonant storytelling where messaging, visual hierarchy and placement are optimized for how people actually notice and process OOH creatives.
About what LOC8 has revealed through campaigns like Renault Triber and Namaste India on how categories such as auto, FMCG and real estate use attention metrics to drive outcomes.
Each category uses attention data differently but all share one common goal: to convert outdoor visibility into measurable engagement.
• Automotive | Renault Triber
For the new Renault Triber facelift, bold creative met data-led planning through LOC8. By analyzing on-ground video data, LOC8 measured real audience attention across placements factoring in visibility zones, obstructions, traffic speed and perceptual size. This enabled Renault to identify corridors that delivered maximum reach, saliency and engagement, optimizing media efficiency and ROI.
• FMCG | Namaste India
In OOH, innovation is the hook and assets are the bait. But bait often hides the hook. With Loc8’s attention metrics, we ensured the bait wasn’t a hurdle, rather it became the perfect stage for innovation to deliver its full impact! The insight proved that creative novelty, when validated by attention data, drives deeper engagement and measurable brand lift.
• Real Estate
For luxury and real estate campaigns targeting HNI/UHNI audiences, attention patterns differ especially between front and rear passengers, who are often the core audience segment for premium sites. LOC8’s ability to distinguish rear vs. front visibility plays a critical role here. It helps identify sites that offer longer viewing windows and stronger perceptual dominance from the rear seat where decision-makers are most likely seated making it a key differentiator for premium and trust-led categories. Together, these insights prove that auto optimizes for impact, FMCG for recall, and real estate for trust visibility showing how attention metrics adapt to category goals while ensuring measurable outcomes.
On how attention analytics will shape the future of brand storytelling and media planning as OOH becomes more digitised and data-driven.
As outdoor digitizes, attention analytics will inform not just where to advertise but how stories are told in public spaces. This evolution transforms OOH from a static broadcast channel into a dynamic attention ecosystem, where creativity is optimized through evidence-based insight.
On how LOC8’s data-led framework helps marketers quantify OOH impact and make outdoor a more accountable, ROI-driven medium.
LOC8 bridges the gap between intuition and evidence. By quantifying metrics like visibility duration, attention opportunity index, and visual saliency rank, it allows brands to benchmark site performance and justify investment. This data-led approach brings transparency, comparability and ROI measurement to a medium historically driven by perception.
On how OSMO ensures AI and computer vision enhance creativity rather than reduce it to numbers.
OSMO believes that technology should enhance creativity, not overshadow it. LOC8’s attention models reveal what naturally draws the human eye helping creative teams refine design cues, contrast, and visual hierarchy for greater impact. By merging art and science, LOC8 empowers creativity with intelligence.
About the creative best practices and design cues LOC8 has uncovered regarding what truly captures consumer attention outdoors.
LOC8’s visual cognition analysis has surfaced clear patterns across campaigns:
• High contrast and minimal messaging outperform cluttered designs.
• Motion cues draw significantly longer dwell times.
• The first two seconds are critical, creatives must establish focus instantly.
• Contextual alignment between the creative and its environment increases attention by over 30%.
These learnings offer a scientific foundation for creative effectiveness helping brands design OOH that’s visually magnetic and emotionally memorable.
On how attention metrics will integrate into omnichannel planning where OOH, digital and social work together for unified brand impact.
Attention can become the unifying KPI across OOH, digital and social to creates seamless storytelling continuity, where outdoor triggers digital engagement. The future of omnichannel planning lies in attention-led integration ensuring that campaigns don’t just reach audiences everywhere but truly capture and hold their focus.
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