Media - Broadcast

The Rs 3,000-crore diversified Sanghi Group, who are promoters of Vaarttha, the no.2 daily in Andhra Pradesh, is keen on investing in more segments of media apart from print, and a potential area of interest is broadcasting. The group is set to launch a 24-hour, free-to-air, Telugu news channel before the current year draws to a close, and the objective, says Girish Sanghi, CMD, Vaarttha, is to...

For the Dainik Jagran Group, who are publishers of the Hindi daily of the same name, it is not only print, but also television that has a significant role to play in its business plans this year. The group is looking to launch a 24-hour, free-to-air, Hindi news and current affairs channel by December 2004, and according to Siddharth Gupta, director, Dainik Jagran, the foray is a natural extension...

The big difference between the general elections of 1999 and this year's elections is that this time round, a large number of news channels - especially Hindi news channels - covered the elections fairly exhaustively. While allied media such as radio, the Internet and newspapers played a part in giving a blow-by-blow account of developments at the hustings, given the fact that political drama...

While the world's largest democracy is in the midst of elections, there are 72 other nations around the world that have already hit or would soon be hitting the election trail this year. In fact, 2004 can easily be called the Year of the Elections. While Indian news and current affairs channels have already come up with innovative ways of keeping viewers glued to television sets during the Lok...

It's been a topic that has elicited a fair amount of discussion in publishing circles for a while now, but the Times Group had been characteristically tightlipped about it. Now, finally, the Indian media conglomerate has officially announced its 50:50 JV partnership with electronic media giant British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), which has a considerable stake in the publishing business as well...

Political satire, it appears, is the flavour of the month on news television. Be it Aaj Tak, STAR News or ZEE News, news channels are falling over one another to rope in popular actors and comedians to add eyeballs and boost their TVRs. While Aaj Tak has inked a deal with mimic and anchor Javed Jaffrey for its show JBC (Javed Broadcasting Corporation), STAR News has brought in gag-bag Shekhar...

In the wake of increasing competition and the 2004 general elections looming in the horizon, Aaj Tak plans to leave no stone unturned to maintain its leadership position. The homegrown 24-hour news channel is fortifying its weekend slot with some additional punch. After Jurm ki Duniya (Saturday), Ho Na Sakaa (Sunday) Seedhi Baat (Sunday), Duniya Ravivar (Sunday) and Cinema Aaj Tak (Saturday), the...

Close to a year after formation, NDTV Media - the subsidiary of NDTV, which has been focusing its attention on building the two brands of NDTV India and NDTV 24X7 - plans to expand its range of operations to include broadcasters/players outside the umbrella of the parent. The vision, as Raj Nayak, CEO, NDTV Media, highlights, is to emerge as the largest media marketing company. "The organisation...

The Telugu television news sector is heating up. While December saw the launch announcements of three news channels, January brings forth a fourth player. Vaarttha, one of Andhra Pradesh’s leading Telugu dailies, has decided to diversify into television with plans to launch a news channel. Set for takeoff this year, the organisation is ironing out the details. Confirming Vaarttha’s decision to...

With the assembly polls round the corner, the news channel genre is turning into a hotbed of competition. At a press meet in the capital yesterday two news channels were unveiled - first, the 24-hour All India Radio news channel, which goes live on April 2, 2004, and second, the 24-hour DD News channel, which goes on air on November 3, 2003. The terrestrial channel hopes to reach 43 per cent of...