KARACHI: How do financial dynamics affect television content? How do advertisers decide which TV channel to give their ads to? And how has the content design changed ever since People Meters were installed in households? These and other corresponding issues were talked about at a panel discussion on Friday evening at T2F.

Giving a background on the existing system of making money on television, publisher of the Express Tribune Bilal Lakhani said: “The revenue of the TV industry is approximately Rs28 million of which 90 to 95 per cent is generated from advertising. TV channels make no money from subscriptions in Pakistan.”

Farhan Qureshi, associated with a media buying house and one of the panellists for Peace Niche’s inaugural session of the Mind Your Media project, talked about the 675 People Meters that have been installed in eight cities and have been in use since 2007. The purpose of the ratings system is to find out what people are watching at what time.”

The discussion became animated when journalists Mazhar Abbas and Afia Salam lambasted the ratings system. “There is not a single meter in Balochistan. In fact, there are 365 meters in Karachi alone. You have completely ignored Balochistan. As a result channels are not pushed to discuss Baloch issues on their shows,” said Mr Abbas.

“Ratings system is subject to manipulation and that affects what you see on television. How can 600 households determine how the entire media content is shaped?” asked Ms Salam.

Both Mr Lakhani and Mr Qureshi agreed that the People Meter methodology was faulty but “it is the only system we have at the moment,” said the publisher and Mr Qureshi added that they wanted to install more People Meters in households but were constrained to do so because of the high price of the technology. The meter itself costs about $4,000, answered the ratings expert when he was asked by an audience member regarding the cost of the meter. It could go up to $7,000 to $8,000 that involves the running cost, software, licensing, incentivization and other costs, he said.

Rahma Mian, a moderator of the panel discussion, put a question to Mr Abbas: “How much do ratings influence theme and guests of a current affairs show?” Mr Abbas who has experience of working in several TV news channels answered that most talk shows were anchorperson-driven. “Anchorpersons who have a journalistic background discuss and research their subjects but if a burning issue comes up then they change the theme at the last minute.”

The lively debate ended with a discussion on how to veer away the advertising-driven content with suggestions that hopefully new models such as the Direct-to-Home technology comes to Pakistan that would allow for TV channels to have revenue that is independent of advertising, will break the stronghold of cable channels and lead to creation of niche channels.