24x7

Years ago when there used to be only one channel on air watching television was a pleasureable pastime. There were about four teleserials and one movie every week. Each one was an occasion for the entire family to sit down and enjoy. Nirma and Surf were the only soaps on tv and news was broadcast once each day just after dinner time. The nation was updated with the progress made on the day on various fronts and audiences went to bed assured of a better future. Those were the good old days of state run media. Then the Soviet union collapsed and cable television took over.

This is the age of 24x7 television. Specialization is the keyword of our generation and TV channels are no different. There are channels exclusively for soaps, music, news, religion, sports ... Choose your poison. The number of creative individuals unfortunately has not kept up and naturally our breads are buttered thin these days.

The biggest change to hit Indian TV has to be the soaps. Each soap is a complex web of deceit, adultery, jealousy, revenge and all those other hateful emotions that soften and numb the brain. It's been quite a revelation, the various complications a marriage can develop. Given the same conditions in the west there'd be a divorce before the third episode. Whats more, any soap worth its weight in sodium carbonate runs for atleast a couple of hundred episodes. Mid-way through that they all begin to converge and there on one can catch any of the shows without knowing the difference. Some argue thats why they are popular. I say thats why re-runs work.

Its not only entertainment that has suffered this sea change. The worst affected seem to be the news channels. To fill every minute of every day with meaningful news is a near impossibility. Failure to comprehend as much has resulted in every fool willing to hold a microphone in front of a camera turning reporter. Specialists and experts provide insightful analyses on any topic under or over the sun. Its probably for a reason why 'news items' are now called 'stories'. In their bid to get hold of newer and more shocking news, channels regularly manipulate public sentiments. The power they wield makes them the most potent weapon of mass destruction today. Maybe they should be given million-tonnes-of-TNT ratings instead of TRP ratings.

But its not all gloomy. There are sports channels for the disillusioned. Live coverage, night games and extra-ordinary camera work has taken viewing to a new level. As one of them put it, they know our game. Until someone who doesn't pops up sporting noodle straps that is.