ITV

Category: News Broadcasting

  • Radio losses drag down TV Today net

    Radio losses drag down TV Today net

    MUMBAI: TV Today Network has seen an 8.69 per cent dip in its net profit for FY10. The company posted a net profit of Rs 308.67 million, lower than last fiscal’s Rs 335.5 million.

    The income from operations at Rs 2.85 billion is up 13.83 per cent from FY09 when it stood at Rs 2.5 billion.

    As far as the expenses for the firm go, its overall expenditure of Rs 2.54 billion is higher than last year’s Rs 2.25 billion, which is in tune for a growing firm. However, while almost all segments of expenditure saw an increase, the advertising, marketing and distribution expenses dropped to Rs 602.9 million this fiscal, as compared to Rs 675.32 million in the previous year. This is in sync with what analysts had predicted would happen post the merger of Radio Today Broadcasting (which runs Meow FM).

    The company’s operating profit went up by 25.37 per cent which is a significant jump. The operating profit of Rs 309.24 million in FY10, compared to Rs 246.67 million in FY09, indicates that the normal business activities of the firm are growing.

    The other income earned by the firm is marginally down this fiscal at Rs 231.04 million from last year’s Rs 242.08 million. However, one of the key factors that led to a lower net profit this year is the hit that it has taken in its balance sheet on account of higher interest and finance charges courtesy Radio Today’s merger with it. The latter had been making losses and had taken huge loans. At Rs 70.49 million, the interest and finance charges in the TV Today financials were significantly higher than last year’s Rs 1.37 million.

    However thanks to the company’s overall growth its EPS on a Rs 5 face value share is only marginally lower. At Rs 5.31 in FY10 on a diluted basis, it compares well to Rs 5.79 in FY09. The company’s management has announced a dividend of 15 per cent for the fiscal.

    The income generated by the radio segment was Rs 43.61 million, while TV Broadcast was Rs 2.80 billion. However, while the TV segment made a profit of Rs 578.49 million this year, the radio segment made a loss of Rs 221.26 million and this was a major factor in the overall net profit of the firm being down.

    The firm has made an advance of payment of Rs 185 million to Mail Today Newspapers to subscribe to its equity and enter the daily newspaper space. The venture is currently notching up huge losses but the management believes it will end up being a profitable decision.

  • Aaj Tak, CNN IBN win poll endgame ratings

    Aaj Tak, CNN IBN win poll endgame ratings

    MUMBAI: Though the verdict of the 2009 general election was far from what the news channels expected or projected, the endgame drama on 16 May certainly drew in peak viewers.

    The Hindi TV news genre jumped almost three-fold to 14.87 per cent on the counting day, up from the previous week’s standing at 5.08 per cent. This, however, remained lower than what the genre enjoyed as a share percentage last time round, according to Tam data for C&S 15+ in the Hindi speaking market. In 2004, the counting day on 13 May saw the share of the genre surging to 24.25 per cent from its previous week’s draw of 5.06 per cent.

    Aaj Tak led the pack with 27 per cent of channel share, followed by Star news with 19 per cent and India TV 13 per cent. IBN7 remained fourth in the viewership ladder with a 10 per cent share, while Zee News took a share of 9 per cent and NDTV India 7 per cent.

  • IL&FS sells 4 million IBN18 shares for Rs 410 million

    IL&FS sells 4 million IBN18 shares for Rs 410 million

    MUMBAI: IL&FS Private Equity Trust has sold four million shares of IBN18, a Network18 Group company, for Rs 410 million.

    IL&FS offloaded the IBN18 shares in the open market at Rs 100.25 per share. IBN18 houses news channels CNN IBN, IBN7 and IBN Lokmat.

    IL&FS sold to Talma Chemical Industries and Indea Long Term Opportunities Master Fund in two bulk deals. There were other buyers as well which did not get reflected in bulk deals.

    Talma Chemical Industries purchased 1.7 million IBN18 shares, paying out around Rs 170.42 million. Indea Long Term Opportunities Mssaster Fund, on the other hand, picked up 1 million shares for around Rs 100.25 million.

    Shares of IBN18 closed Tuesday at Rs 114.95 on the BSE, up 14.95 per cent over the previous close.

  • News channels gear up for general election endgame

    MUMBAI: The 2009 General Elections has been the focal point for all news channels this season. And now with the high voltage drama finally drawing towards its closing lap, news broadcasters are all gearing up to capture the ultimate destiny of the counting fate come 16 May.


    Every broadcaster will begin the day with the ‘live’ coverage of the counting process and provide audiences with regular updates on the results as the day proceeds.


    In an attempt to come out with a comprehensive analysis on the poll results, English news channel Times Now will organise a discussion panel comprising political experts while NDTV 24X7 and NDTV India has lined up special guests for the same.


    The Times Now panel will include Outlook editor-in-chief Vinod Mehta, senior journalist Swapan Dasgupta, Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, The Telegraph Delhi editor Manini Chatterjee, roving editor Sankarshan Thakur, commentator Nalini Singh, DNA political editor Javed Ansari, Mahesh Rangarajan, The Economic Times consulting editor Swaminathan Aiyar, New Indian Express news editor Neerja Chowdhry, DNA senior editor Arati Jerath, Times of India senior editor Shankar Raghuraman and Times Group editorial advisor Gautam Adhikari, along with Goswami and political editor Navika Kumar.


    NDTV 24X7 and NDTV India will begin with the live coverage of the ‘D‘ day from 6 am onwards and will bring forward an integration of television and web, giving its viewers a platform to chat live with anchors all day. Prannoy Roy, Barkha Dutt, Vikram Chandra and Sreenivasan Jain will answer questions from across the country on live webchat.


    On CNN IBN, Rajdeep Sardesai, Diptosh Majumdar, Sagarika Ghose, Yogendra Yadav, Nandan Nilekani, Lord Meghnad Desai, Ramachandra Guha, Karan Thapar, Dileep Padgaonkar, P Sainath, Inder Malhotra and Fareed Zakaria will take an in-depth look at every movement in the last phase of the elections. The channel plans to track down every vote counted on the counting day.


    IBN7 will go on air with 7RCR Ki Race on 16 May where IBN7’s editorial team along with political experts and publications editors will do an extensive analysis on the post-poll developments across the Indian political arena right till the government is formed. The panel of experts on IBN7 includes Sharvan Garg of Dainik Bhaskar, Vishnu Tripathi of Dainik Jagran, Alok Joshi of Nai Duniya and psephologist Yogendra Yadav.


    NewsX’s reportage, meanwhile, will include the result analysis along with post poll alliance conjectures by experts and psephologists including political analyst Syed Naqvi, Jai Mrug, former CEC TS Krishnamurthy, WSJ’s Paul Beckett, former IPS officer Kiran Bedi, Capt. Gopinath, Fortune Magazine’s John Eliot, political analyst Madhav Nalpat, TR Ramchandran, Alok Mehta, Shankar Roychodhary, constitutional expert Subhash Kashyap, Tughlak editor Cho Ramaswamy and actor Kabir Bedi.


    On 17 May NewsX will telecast a special two-hour show Scramble for Power, comparing all media Exit Polls and Post Poll scenarios.

  • NDTV’s Chennai news channel to be called NDTV Hindu; launch on 16 May

    NDTV’s Chennai news channel to be called NDTV Hindu; launch on 16 May

    MUMBAI: The NDTV joint venture Chennai city-based English news and entertainment channel with The Hindu is titled NDTV Hindu.

    As reported earlier by Indiantelevision.com, the channel will launch on 16 May.

    The free-to-air channel will be aired on two leading multi-system operators – SCV and Hathway Cable & Datacom.

    With a tagline “Nonstop programmes for Nonstop Chennai,” the channel will cover breaking news and current affairs as well as user-friendly information on the hottest eateries, latest gizmos in town and best shopping and hangout destinations in the city.

    Announcing the launch, NDTV Ltd chairman Prannoy Roy said, “We firmly believe that the future of news is in going local. The Hindu Group with its impeccable credentials has been a household name for generations in Chennai and this partnership will help NDTV Hindu to capitalise on the brand strengths and journalistic values of both the media houses.”

    The Hindu editor-in-chief N Ram added, “Chennai is fast evolving as a cosmopolitan city. Though there are a few Indian language channels that exist for local news, yet there is no English channel catering exclusively to this vibrant city. With NDTV’s strong television broadcasting and editorial capabilities, NDTV Hindu will bring out the true flavor of the city through its high-end content.”

    The channel will invite students from Chennai schools for the weekly show titled I Spy with My Digital Eye where they will be taught how to make films, all caught on camera. The channel will also offer a show for shopaholics called Super Shopper that will introduce Chennaites into the world of style and glamour as the show hosts travel to city boutiques, stores, malls and even the footpath to check out the best deals and sales. Shift Focus, on the other hand, will showcase who went where over the weekend, what’s the latest show in town and latest updates on exhibitions, night dos & book launches within Chennai and around the state.

    Jennifer Arul, managing editor and COO of the channel, will round up the day’s happenings in and around the city and national news of importance in Night Vision.

    As the launch is coinciding with the counting day, Arul will start with the election special Night Vision with Media Development Foundation chairman Sashi Kumar for a detailed analysis of the 15th Lok Sabha results.

  • BBC Tamil launches morning news programme

    BBC Tamil launches morning news programme

    MUMBAI: To meet the increased flow of news about the situation in Sri Lanka and the general election in India, the BBC’s Tamil service, BBC Tamilosai, has launched a 10-day special morning news programme.

    The special 15-minute programme will be broadcast from 7 am every day until 20 May. The programme is broadcast on 19 (15285 kHz) and 16 (17515 kHz) meters on shortwave and is also available via the website bbctamil.com as a special audio folder for diaspora listeners.

    BBC Tamil head Thirumalai Manivannan says, “With events unfolding in Sri Lanka as well as the general election in India, the BBC Tamil team feels that it’s important to keep our audiences up to date with latest developments outside our normal daily half-hour broadcasts at 15.45 GMT (21.15 Sri Lankan and Indian Standard Times).

    “As we have done in the past, we decided to add this special morning programme to our news output, to ensure our radio and online audiences are kept fully informed about developments which are directly affecting them.”

    BBC Tamilosai is one of the 32 language and regional services broadcast by BBC World Service. It offers a daily programme of news, current affairs and features, providing global insight to listeners in Sri Lanka, Tamil Nadu in India and across the world. BBC Tamilosai is broadcast across Sri Lanka and Tamil Nadu in India via shortwave.

    The BBC’s special Tamil-language infotainment output for India’s FM market includes sports, business and showbiz bulletins and is available in Chennai via partner station, Radio One.

  • Cranes sofware to assist CNN-IBN on poll count

    Cranes sofware to assist CNN-IBN on poll count

    NEW DELHI: Even as voters are getting ready to cast their votes in the fifth and final phase of the Lok Sabha elections tomorrow, news television channels are gearing up to give live coverage of the results as they come in and trends that emerge on the counting day, 16 May.

    Cranes Software International Limited (Cranes) will analyse the findings of opinion and exit polls as well as do the analysis of early trends for the CNN-IBN TV news channel on the counting day.

    Dr Rajeeva Karandikar, Cranes Software executive vice president, a former professor at the Indian Statistical Institute, has been driving this exercise along with the team from the Analytics Group of Cranes. The team uses Cranes’ in-house statistical software product Systat and its derivatives to analyse the data.

    In January and February 2009 as a run up to the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections, the Cranes Software team analysed data collected during the opinion poll commissioned by CNN-IBN. The raw data was collected by CSDS – the Center for the Study of Developing Societies under the leadership of noted psephologist Yogender Yadav, while the statistical analysis and implications of the data on the final composition of the Lok Sabha was presented by Karandikar in a TV program anchored by Rajdeep Sardesai on CNN-IBN.

    The Cranes team has been involved in assimilating, analysing and preparing the raw data received from AC Nielsen for use in the graphics that go on air. The team at Cranes uses their powerful statistical analysis and graphics software – Systat, to run statistical models on early counting trends and make early seat projections of the final composition of the house. The graphics team at CNN-IBN then renders the findings into graphs which are then telecast on the CNN-IBN channel along with IBN7 (Hindi), IBN Lokmat (Marathi) and occasionally on CNBC channels.

    This exercise is to take place again during the post election coverage on CNN-IBN between 13 May and 17 May.

  • NDTV to launch MetroNation Chennai on 16 May

    NDTV to launch MetroNation Chennai on 16 May

    MUMBAI: The recession may have sucked profitability out of NDTV Ltd, but it has not stopped the Prannoy Roy-promoted company to go ahead with the launch of MetroNation Chennai with The Hindu Group as a joint venture partner.

    The channel will, after much delay, finally launch on 16 May. Says NDTV MetroNation CEO Rajiv Lulla, “MetroNation Chennai had a soft launch on 5 May. We will officially launch the channel on 16 May.”

    NDTV has signed up with several multi-system operators (MSOs) including SCV and Hathway Cable & Datacom to distribute the channel. Says Lulla, “We are in talks to make the channel available on Sun Direct and Tata Sky as well.”

    As for the content, the channel will have seven and half hours of live news during prime time. Features like I Spy With My Digital Eye, Worked Out Victim, Unclocking Life and Big Pic will take up the remaining hours.

    MetroNation Chennai has 118 employees and hopes to capitalise on the brand strengths of The Hindu and NDTV.

    Meanwhile, MetroNation Delhi, which has frozen fresh content, is readying for a revival. “We will be reviving MetroNation Delhi by end of July. It is by then that we will start hiring for the channel once again,” avers Lulla.

    The channel has stopped live broadcast of news completely and is airing old shows. Says Lulla, “While it is true that there is no fresh content on MetroNation Delhi, we are still running news tickers.”

  • Sahara India Media CEO and Editor-in-Chief Sanjeev Srivastava quits

    Sahara India Media CEO and Editor-in-Chief Sanjeev Srivastava quits

    MUMBAI: Barely after a four-month stint at Sahara India Media, Sanjeev Srivastava has quit as CEO and Editor-in-Chief.

    Srivastava had joined Sahara Group in January this year, and was heading all media-related activities of the Group.

    Confirming to Indiantelevision.com, Srivastava said, “Yes I have quit today. I have a few options but have not decided as of now.”

    Prior to Sahara, Srivastava was India editor at BBC. He comes with over 25 years of experience in journalism with various media organisations including the Times of India and Indian Express. Working for 16 years with the BBC, he most recently led the entire BBC Hindi output generated from India across all platforms of delivery, including FM, short wave and online.

  • Arup Ghosh to take legal action against NewsX

    NEW DELHI: Chafed at the abrupt termination of his services as the newsroom head of NewsX, Arup Ghosh is in the process of taking legal action to claim “adequate compensation.”


    Talking to Indiantelevision.com, Ghosh said, “The action taken by the NewsX management, represented by Jehangir S Pocha and Vinay Chhajlani (Indi Media), is highly unwarranted, unethical and totally wrongful. I shall now seek legal recourse to claim adequate compensation for the enormous damage caused to my professional reputation and credibility.”


    The management of NewsX changed hands this January from Peter and Indrani Mukerjea‘s INX News to Indi Media, a joint venture between NaiDunia promoter and CEO Chhajlani and former Businessworld editor Pocha.


    Ghosh, who had joined NewsX following the departure of its CEO and editorial head Vir Sanghvi, was instrumental in launching the channel and operating it.


    Said Ghosh, “NewsX was launched by me in March 2008 – within a month of my joining INX News. Within a year‘s span the channel did well and the Tam numbers prove it. In the light of this move by the current management it is clear that the action taken against me is part of a conspiracy to ease me out.”


    When contacted, Pocha declined to comment.


    As reported earlier in Indiantelevision.com, editorial differences had cropped up between Ghosh and Pocha.