Types of Newspaper Ownership in India

Newspaper Ownership in India

The Indian media market differs from those of developed countries in several ways. For one, India is a developing country and all segments of the media industry (including print and radio) are still growing unlike in developed countries. The media market in India remains highly fragmented, due to the large number of languages and the sheer size of the country.

Types of Newspaper Ownership in India

There are various types of media ownership. There are many media organization in the country that are owned and controlled by a wide variety of entities including corporate bodies, societies and trusts and individuals. There were over 82,000 publications registered with the Registrar of Newspapers as on 31 March 2011

There are four major types of ownership of mass media. Chain, cross media, conglomerate and vertical integration.

Chain Ownership

Chain ownership means the same media company owns numerous outlets in a single medium, a chain of newspaper, a series of radio stations, a string of television stations or several book publishing companies. Chain ownership in India applies mostly to newspapers. There are many publishing groups in India which fall into this category such as the group headed by the Times of India, Hindustan Times, Indian Express, Statesman, Ananda bazar Patrika, Hindu, Telegraph and living media foundations.

Cross Media Ownership

Cross media ownership is when the same company owns several along with newspaper, magazines, musical labels, and publishers and so on.  cross-media ownership across the various carriers such as television, radio or print; consolidation, including vertical integration among media operations of content, carrier and distributor within a media segment such as television or radio; and market share dominance in a given geography within each media segment.

Conglomerate Ownership

Conglomerate ownership means the ownership of several business one of which a media business. For example when a publishing company owns a newspaper along with chemical, fertilizer, cement rubber or plastics factories, or a liquor brewery or distillery or a major corporation has controlling shares in a number of media related business, the pattern is conglomerate. In a conglomerate, there will be interlocking of directorships, which means the same persons will be director of a media company as well as of manufacturing industries or financial corporations. Infact several transport or lorry company directors are directing the destiny of newspaper, television or film production companies. Their main business will be a high profit industry, but they run a media company for prestige or to exercise social and political influence on decision makers in the private or public sector and in the government of the day. Such a conglomeration may not always support an unbiased or dispassionate presentation of events, issues and personalities. However, there are already at least six states where a single media house has a clear and growing dominance. These are media groups that are emerging as national conglomerates. They are all in the news business as well as in entertainment, media distribution and network business. They own newspapers, magazines, radio, cable TV and television channels, to name their key businesses.

Vertical  Integration

Vertical integration indicates that a media company monopolizes the production of the ingredients that go into the making of   media products. For example a newspaper publisher may own several hundred areas of forests where the major components of a newspaper namely wood for newsprints cultivated. Some other newspaper company may own a factory that produces the bulk of the printing ink or processed used in the industry. Certain film companies may own studies or industrial units   producing film stocks or even a chain of theatres where the films are exhibited.

If the present trend of cross media, conglomerate and vertical  integration ownership continues, monopolization will result   which will ultimately lead to the phenomenon of suppression  not only of media freedom  but also of the unbiased  presentation of various points of view. Most media companies in India and abroad are integrating vertically to sell cross-media, often acquiring or building multimedia platforms. News Corp.’s Star TV India and Sun TV Network Ltd already own DTH and cable distribution platforms. Star’s cross-media India operations include television channels, Internet offerings, radio, mobile entertainment and home video (incidentally, 11 cable distribution companies provide some 400 television channels in India). Sun Network has 14 TV channels in four states, cable assets, four magazines, radio stations and two newspapers. In Tamil Nadu, the dominance of Sun in cable and satellite TV (channels and distribution network) and now in the DTH market is quite visible. Sun TV and its cable company are known to simply blackout political telecasts by rival Jaya TV.

The Ownership Pattern of Newspaper in India

 There are many media organisations in the country that are owned and controlled by a wide variety of entities including corporate bodies, societies and trusts, and individuals. Information about such organizations and people is scattered, incomplete, and dated.

·         The sheer number of media organizations and outlets often conceals the fact there is dominance over specific markets and market segments by a few players – in other words, the markets are often oligopolistic in character.

·         The absence of restrictions on cross-media ownership implies that particular companies or groups or conglomerates dominate markets both vertically (that is, across different media such as print, radio, television and the internet) as well as horizontally (namely, in particular geographical regions).

·         Political parties and persons with political affiliation own/control increasing sections of the media in India.

·         The promoters and controllers of media groups have traditionally held interests in many other business interests and continue to do so, often using their media outlets to further these. There are a few instances of promoters who have used the profits from their media operations to diversify into other (unrelated) businesses.

·         The growing corporatization of the Indian media is manifest in the manner in which large industrial conglomerates are acquiring direct and indirect interest in media groups. There is also a growing convergence between creators/producers of media content and those who distribute/disseminate the content.

Conclusion

 The mass media in India is possibly dominated by less than a hundred large groups or conglomerates, which exercise considerable influence on what is read, heard, and watched. One example will illustrate this contention. Delhi is the only urban area in the world with 16 English daily newspapers; the top three publications, the Times of India, the Hindustan Times, and the Economic Times, would account for over three-fourths of the total market for all English dailies.

Further, the report calls attention to the fact that all restrictions on vertical integration are currently placed on companies. The large conglomerates of the Indian media are usually groups that own different companies. This allows them to have controlling stakes both in broadcasting and distribution by acquiring licences under their different subsidiary companies, thus totally bypassing current restrictions and defeating the purpose of their existence in the first place. The report, therefore, suggests that restrictions no longer be placed on “companies” but on “entities” or groups, which would include large groups and conglomerates such as BCCL and Dainik Bhaskar.

The north-east too is in the business of political ownership of news organizations, with Assam and Nagaland in the lead. Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio owns theEastern Mirror, published by the Nagaland Free Press. In Assam, the most interesting player is the former Union Minister of State of Parliamentary Affairs, Matang Singh, who owns  NE TV, Focus TV, NE Bangla, NE Hi Fi, Hamar, HY TV, and Radio Oo la la. He controls them through holding companies Positiv Television Pvt. Ltd. and Positiv Radio Pvt. Ltd. Riniki Bhuyan Sarma, wife of the health minister of Assam, Hemanta Biswa Sarma, controls News Live and Rang through holding company Pride East Entertainments Pvt. Ltd. Other upcoming Congress leaders are present in the media in Assam. MLA Anjan Dutta owns the daily Ajir Dainik Batori through Dasharupa Engineering & Publications Pvt. Ltd. Yet another Assam minister, Rockybul Hussain, in charge of the State’s Ministries of Panchayat & Rural Development, Forest & Environment, conrols the daily Janasadharan, through Janasadharan Printing & Publishers Pvt. Ltd. Badruddin Ajmal of the Assam United Democratic Front (AUDF), industrialist and social activist who is on the executive council of Darul Uloom Deoband, controls the daily, Ganaadhikar, through Unity Media and Infrastructure Ltd.