Jio Jio everywhere

Reliance Industries Limited’s Chairman and Managing Director Mukesh Ambani addressed employees and stakeholders today at an event in Mumbai. This public relations exercise, the purpose of which was to extol the virtues of Jio, was deemed important enough for TV channels like NDTV, Times Now, India Today, Aaj Tak, India TV, News X and, of course, CNN–News18 to show live.

Now, Ambani making announcements pertaining to his company, which happens to be the latest entrant in the telecommunications business, is definitely newsworthy and important enough to be reported on. But airing the entire address live isn’t exactly reporting. None of these channels had reporters on ground relaying relevant information back to studios, sifting PR from news. Instead, the coverage simply comprised Ambani’s speech in its entirety. The print version of events would be to paste Jio’s press release on front pages – we sincerely hope we don’t wake up to that tomorrow.

Also, quick question: when was the last time you remember channels airing a complete speech of a company head? And what do you think that has to do with the media ownership pattern? The answer to the first question, as far as we know, is never. At least not in recent times. And the answer to the second question is everything.