Category: News Broadcasting

MUMBAI: In a bid to expand its coverage on environmental issues, CNN International (CNNI) will focus on environment-based topics through its “Going Green” special on Earth Day, 22 April.

As part of its programming lineup for“Going Green”, CNNI will showcase global resources with an array of reports and live coverage of Earth Day events from around the world. From signature newscasts to business shows, the network will focus on everything green and “help make sense of what it means to be green today”. CNNI will also change the network’s signature red logo to green during the coverage.

CNNI is also planning special stories based on the same theme during the weekend (25-26 April).

“CNNI is committed to green coverage. It is a topic that resonates with our viewers and with our correspondents. We have reporters all over the world. This allows us to give our viewers a true global picture of the environmental issues and solutions,” said CNNI SVP Katherine Green. The network’s business shows, ‘World Business Today’ and ‘Quest Means Business’, will focus on the business of going green. From the CEO of an up-and-coming green company to a climate change skeptic, these shows will speak to a variety of people to offer viewers many perspectives on green topics.On 25 April and 26 April, CNNI will air ‘Your Green World’ at 5.30 pm and 11.30 pm respectively. The half-hour special will be devoted to the current state of green initiatives around the planet. Correspondents from different parts of the world will report on how the current concern over the state of the environment touches the lives of global citizens.

NEW DELHI: After the general election coverage, it is the second season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) which is consuming most of the airtime on news channels. They have lined up an array of programming as the Twenty20 format has become popular among Indian audiences.

Says NDTV sports editor Sonali Chander said, “This year NDTV will cover IPL comprehensively. For both NDTV 24×7 and NDTV India, we have lined up four shows a day. We have lined up a number of contests, polls, etc. On the whole we have added more interactivity this year.”

Beginning at 8.30 am, NDTV 24×7 is showing The IPL Safari. The channel has tied-up with South African tourism and will cover the popular tourist spots of South Africa. Later at 2.30 pm, the channel is telecasting Opening Spell, which is a pre-match show. At 7.30 pm NDTV 24×7 is airing Lights, Camera, Sixer that will talk about the first match of the day as well as the upcoming match. And finally, at 12 midnight the channel will air League of the Champions, a post match show featuring Ajay Jadeja.

NDTV Group’s Hindi news channel, NDTV India will show the IPL marathon from 8.30 am with The IPL Safari followed by Kisme Kitna Hain Dum at 3.30pm. At 7.30 pm, its the time for Oye! It’s IPL and finally at 11.30 pm the channel will telecast Bindas Cricket. Furthermore, NDTV has tied up with the Shah Rukh Khan-owned Kolkata Knight Riders and will be introducing a contest for the team.

Meanwhile, Network18’s news channels CNN-IBN and IBN7 have introduced ‘Kaun Jeetega IPL‘ opinion poll on its website, www.cricketnext.com.

The poll will give an opportunity to cricket fans to vote for their favourite team and also predict the champion of the second season.

The result will be revealed on a show which goes by the same name, Kaun Jeetega IPL, which will feature former Indian pacer Javagal Srinath and Cyrus Broacha discussing team formations, strengths and weakness of players and share their key insights.

Furthermore, IBN18 Network has introduced a contest which will give five viewers a chance to meet Shah Rukh Khan and his team Kolkata Knight Riders. The contest will continue till 18 May on the network’s three chanels – CNN-IBN, IBN7 and IBN Lokmat.

In the contest, trivial questions will be asked about the team, players and Shah Rukh Khan, starting with Breakfast with India on CNN-IBN, Breakfast News on IBN7 and Salaam Maharashtra on IBN-Lokmat. And a daily winner will be announced everyday in the last bulletin of the day on all the channels. This will also be mentioned on cricketnext.com.

Times Now is once again introducing the second edition of Summer Slam which will provide the viewers with pre and post match details. The show is being telecast at 3.30 pm, 7.30 pm and at 11.30 pm.

The show will have panellists like actor Arbaaz Khan, cricket historian Boria Majumdar, Charu Sharma and Neha Sharma. In addition, the channel will cover the event ‘live‘ providing the viewers with live coverage.

Additionally, Times Now has tied up with Rajasthan Royals to provide exclusive details related to the team.

Says Times Now editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami, “Last year our showSummer Slam was one of the most viewed programme on IPL. In fact, as per ratings the show had overpowered Max as well as other channels. We are sure that even this year Summer Slam will gather enough eyeballs.”

MUMBAI: Euronews South Africa has appointed Romanian journalist Lucian Sârb as director – news and programmes. Sârb will assume charge from 4 May onwards.

With 15 years’ experience in journalism, Sârb will take over as head of the editorial department and the 350 staff journalists comprising the eight language teams of Euronews. The channel broadcasts simultaneously in Arabic, English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish. Additionally, the Turkish language broadcast is also in line-up and will be up by January 2010.

Sârb began working for TVR (Televiziunea Româna), the Romanian public broadcaster and shareholder of Euronews, in 1994.

During his stint with TVR, Sârb was instrumental in organising a project between Euronews and TVR to launch the first daily news programme of Euronews in Romanian, in 2004, broadcast on the channel TVR2.

He was also a member of the executive committee newsgroup of the European Broadcasting Union.

NEW DELHI

: The News Broadcasting Standards Disputes Redressal Authority, the self-regulatory authority created for news television channels under News Broadcasters Association (NBA), has slapped India TV with a fine of Rs 100,000.

In addition the authority has directed the news channel to run an apology between 8-9 pm, five times with a space of twelve minutes, saying, ‘India TV apologizes for the story run on Ms. Farhana Ali in December, 2008 since the same was a misrepresentation of facts. Any harm caused to Ms. Farhana Ali is regretted.”

The decision has been taken under the chairmanship of Justice (Retd.) J.S. Verma and other members which includes historian Ramachandra Guha, former Nasscom chief Kiran Karnik, sociologist Dipankar Gupta and economist and former undersecretary-general of the United Nations, Nitin Desai.

As per the press release issued by NBA, Farhana Ali, a writer, lecturer and policy analyst residing in USA, had issued a show cause notice on 18 December 2008 to India TV.

Ali had issued the notice on the ground that the channel had misused the interview given by her to Reuters by broadcasting it on India TV. The channel had picked the interview and aired it after dubbing it in Hindi. The channel had also downloaded her picture from the internet and used it in the story, giving the false impression that she had given the interview to India TV.

Further, India TV said in its story that Ali was a spy for the United States government and also exaggerated the statement made by Ali that portrayed her as pro-India and anti-Pakistan.

According to Ali this act of the channel had damaged her positioned within the US government and has further placed her life in jeopardy.

When contacted, a senior official of India TV said that the channel has written to NBA and would like to be heard on the matter. The channel has already apologised to Ali. This has been accepted by Ali, the official added.

MUMBAI

: BBC is pumping up its election coverage in India. An army of reporters from BBC World Service English, BBC Hindi, BBC Urdu, BBC Tamil, BBC Bengali, BBC Somali, BBC Swahili, BBC World News television, Arabic TV, Persian TV and BBC.Com/news will board a train to broadcast stories to the world – across TV, radio and online.

The multi-platform, multi-lingual initiative – India Election Train – will cover a diverse range of news from across India during the run-up to the country’s general election.

BBC has worked with Indian Railways to design a time table for the project and the train will take a route from Dehli-Ahmedabad-Mumbai-Hyderabad-Bhubaneshwar-Kolkata-Patna-Allahabad-Dehli, with the team visiting major population centres as well as contrasting provincial towns and rural areas.

Beginning 25 April (Saturday) until 13 May (Wednesday), reporters from BBC’s Global News division will travel through India by train, investigating what Indians want from their general election and the key themes surrounding it.

“We had carried out a similar excercise in the US during the recent presidential elections and think that Indian elections also are a very big event. This is why we are covering approximately 6,500 kilometers of India in 18 days,” BBC World Service executive editor South Aisa region Nazes Afroz tells Indiantelevision.com.

BBC reporters will investigate a variety of topics including India’s response to the current economic crisis, security concerns, workings of the world’s largest democracy, India’s rich/poor divide, the role of religion and prominence of the entertainment industry with recent successes like Slumdog Millionaire.

“We are here not to compete with the local channels but to tell the Indian story to our viewers across the globe. Also, through our initiative, we will bring what the outer world thinks about the Indian elections,” Afroz explains.

Online users will be able to track the journey of the train through an interactive map and a daily blog available on the BBC’s India Election webpage.

NEW DELHI: Zee News Ltd (ZNL) said Monday it launched a Hindi news channel for Uttar Pradesh and Uttarkhand on 5 April.

The channel has the tag line ‘Jad se jahan tak’. Says ZNL CEO Barun Das, “Zee News Uttar Pradesh will be weaved on the similar thoughts and ideology of other network channels and hence the spotlight will continue to stay rooted on the credible and authentic news value. With the support of our programming team we are optimistic that Zee News Uttar Pradesh will emerge as the preferred news channel amongst its audience across UP and Uttarakhand.”

The regional news channel is headed by Vasindra Mishra as editor and Sanjay Pandey as business head.

The programming of the channel includes a mix of news from across genres including local, regional, national, sports, movies, theatre and fashion. The channel has started its election programming with Hamare Dum par Dilli.

“Zee News Uttar Pradesh will provide its viewers content that is well researched and caters to their need of local information. Our in-depth and analysed programming approach will not only help us understand the viewer’s psychic but will provide them a platform which is highly interactive and informative. We are confident that like our other channels, Zee News Uttar Pradesh will also become the most dependable source of information in UP and Uttarakhand,” says Mishra.

ZNL had earlier launched a Telugu news channel, Zee 24 Gantalu.

MUMBAI: UTVi has partnered with UK Trade and Investment to launch a reality game show on mergers and acquisitions, in which Indian firms attempt to acquire a British company.

The Deal, a two-part series, will be aired on two consecutive weekends, starting 4 and 5 April and 11 and 12 April.

The series will be aired at at 5:30 pm and 6:30 pm on Saturdays and Sundays respectively.

Says UTVi CEO Shantonu Aditya, “Integration of newer formats and customisation of content holds the key to successful messaging. The Deal is a strong example of UTVi’s expertise in this space. We look forward to taking such formats to newer heights.”

Through this show, UK Trade and Investment and UTVi will provide an experience of deals cracked by the management teams and their consultants.

UTVi COO Sumit Gupta adds, “The two-part series would dwell upon understanding the role of consultants and advisors in a merger and acquisition scenario and also on what it takes to understand the various concerns attached to the deal.”