ITV

Tag: NDTV

  • NDTV announces first RTI Awards

    NDTV announces first RTI Awards

    MUMBAI: NDTV has joined hands with Public Cause Research Foundation (PCRF), an organisation set up by Magsaysay awardee Arvind Kejriwal, to organise the first RTI Awards.

    The awards will be given away on 1 December to acknowledge those who have displayed exemplary commitment to RTI Act. These will honour public information officers (PIOs), citizens and information commissioners who have strived through the RTI to make India better, claims the channel.

    The awards ceremony, in New Delhi, will be graced by Vice President of India Hamid Ansari.

    NDTV chairman Prannoy Roy said, “NDTV is privileged to present the RTI Awards to the citizens and officials of India who have made the Right-To-Information Act a success. RTI has helped Indians in getting justice that they are entitled to and brought in transparency in our democratic system.

    Added Kejriwal, “The purpose of these awards is to enthuse commissioners, officers and citizens alike to make RTI a reality in letter and spirit, which it is far from right now.”

    The awards will be given in three categories – best information commissioner in the country, best public information officer in the country and best RTI citizen.

    The jury comprises personalities and citizens of India like Aamir Khan, NR Narayana Murthy, Mallika Sarabhai, Fali S Nariman, Santosh (RTI activist), Justice JS Verma, Madhu Trehan, JM Lyngdoh, Pullela Gopichand, Sanjay Gupta, and Prannoy Roy.

    Each winner will receive a citation, a plaque and prize money of Rs 200,000.

  • Shivnath Thukral quits NDTV

    Shivnath Thukral quits NDTV

    MUMBAI: Barely a month after being elevated as business editor and advisor strategy at the group level, Shivnath Thukral has decided to quit NDTV.

    Confirming the development to Indiantelevision.com, a source in the company said, “Thukral had sent to all of us a letter telling about his resignation on Saturday, though nothing has been communicated to us officially as of yet.”

    Thukral, the managing editor of English business news channel NDTV Profit, was in September promoted to a new work profile, something which he obviously did not like.

    In an official communiqué to the employees, Roy had said, “Radhika and I have asked Shivi to spare some of his time to work closely with the two of us on NDTV’s strategies for new projects.”

    Sources say Thukral, who had joined NDTV as a reporter in 1995, had major differences with NDTV Profit’s business and strategy head John O’Loan. He was unhappy about the changes that were brought about in the functioning of NDTV Profit.

    Thukral and O’Loan, however, could not be reached for their comments.

    A long standing NDTV consultant, O’Loan was recently made business and strategy head of NDTV Profit.

  • NDTV elevates Shivnath Thukral to group business editor

    NDTV elevates Shivnath Thukral to group business editor

    MUMBAI: Radhika and Prannoy Roy-promoted NDTV Group has elevated NDTV Profit Shivnath Thukral to business editor and advisor strategy at the group level.

    Thukral was managing editor of the English business channel of the group since July 2007.

    The announcement was made by the promoters in an official communiqué to the employees. “We are happy to announce that Thukral is to have a redefined role at NDTV,” the memo reads.

    “We would now like Shivi (Thukral) to take on a new role that will enable him to be more involved with the journalism aspects of the business and not with managing newsrooms,” the mail said.

    In his new role, Thukral will work with the promoters on the business strategies for the new projects. “Radhika and I have asked Shivi to spare some of his time to work closely with the two of us on NDTV’s strategies for new projects,” the letter added.

    Also, he will be a journalist – available for all NDTV’s channels where he will also do special shows. His major shows like Big Business Battles and other interview shows will continue on NDTV Profit. He will also be launching his own interview-based show on NDTV Profit soon.

    Thukral had joined NDTV in 1995 as a reporter.

  • Supreme Court gives clean chit to sting ops in public interest

    Supreme Court gives clean chit to sting ops in public interest

    MUMBAI: For news channels conducting sting operations, this is a piece of good news. Rejecting a plea for putting curbs on the media and television channels from conducting sting operations, the Supreme Court has given a clean chit to NDTV while upholding the conviction of lawyer RK Anand.

    NDTV had carried out a sting operation in the BMW hit-and-run case that exposed collusion between the prosecution and defence counsel.

    A Bench comprising Justices BN Agrawal, GS Singhvi and Aftab Alam said, “It is not our intent here to lay down any reformist agenda for the media. The norms to regulate the media and to raise its professional standards must come from inside.”

    Rejecting suggestions that channels should carry out sting operations only after getting prior permission from the court, the Bench said,”Such a course would not be an exercise in journalism but in that case the media would be acting as some sort of special vigilance agency for the court. On a little consideration, the idea appears to be quite repugnant both from the points of view of the court and the media. It would be a sad day for the court to employ the media for setting its own house in order; and media too would certainly not relish the role of being the snoopers for the court.”

    A plea that the telecast should be permissible only after submitting the sting material to the court was also rejected. Pre-screening of the material would amount to pre-censorship, the court said.

    The apex court also held that the sting operation was not a media trial but in the larger public interest.

  • NDTV partners IndiaCan to launch broadcast journalism course

    NDTV partners IndiaCan to launch broadcast journalism course

    MUMBAI: NDTV Worldwide has partnered with IndiaCan, a joint venture between Educomp and Pearson, to launch a programme in broadcast journalism across the country.

    “NDTV has set pioneering benchmarks across news and television broadcasting, while sticking to the highest professional standards. So we are delighted with this association between IndiaCan and NDTV Worldwide, a model that represents the best in our respective fields,” said IndiaCan CEO Sharad Talwar.

    “NDTV’s Media Institute is proud to partner with NDTV Worldwide and IndiaCan in offering students across India an opportunity to train with latest methodologies of broadcast journalism. The success of our courses under the NDTV Media Institute gives us a huge leveraging platform to expand the training course across India”, said NDTV Media Institute CEO Sanjay Nigam.

  • 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.”

  • NDTV plans to launch MetroNation Chennai in April

    NDTV plans to launch MetroNation Chennai in April

    NEW DELHI: NDTV is readying for the launch of MetroNation Chennai in April while cutting costs in MetroNation Delhi to keep losses in check amid an economic downturn.

    Jennifer Arul is the managing editor of the channel. “We have already hired about 100 people and will be launching MetroNation Chennai in April,” says NDTV MetroNation CEO Rajiv Lulla.

    As reported first in Indiantelevision.com, NDTV will launch the Chennai city-centric channel through a joint venture company with the Hindu Group where it will hold 51 per cent stake.

    So what led to the delay when the channel was supposed to launch last year? “There were licence issues and it took us time arranging for everything,” says Lulla.

    Meanwhile, NDTV has scaled down the operations of MetroNation Delhi by axing jobs and reducing fresh programming on the city-specific channel for Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR). The channel has converted its mobile studio, ‘The Metronation Bus,’ into a mobile election studio to be used by the two sister news channels, NDTV 24X7 and NDTV India.

    “MetroNation is a resilient and nimble channel. We are cutting costs and will hire people when the time is right,” says Lulla.

  • NDTV ventures into media education biz

    NDTV ventures into media education biz

    MUMBAI: Following on the steps of other media houses like Aaj Tak, Times and Zee, NDTV is foraying entering into the education business space with ‘NDTV Broadcast Training Programme’. The company has join hands with Macaw, the advertising and marketing solutions providing entity of the INCL (India Mews Communications Ltd) Group as the communication agency for creative and media buying services in introducing the broadcast training programme.

    The company is firm that the association of faces like Pronnoy Roy, Barkha Dutt, Vinod Dua and Pankaj Pachauri along with NDTV credits, will add mileage to their programme thereby drawing in large number of candidates.

    The eligibility criteria to apply to the programme is that one should be graduate and below 27 years of age. The first batch will be started from March second from July. The course curriculum, it claims, is career oriented and focuses to groom the aspirants with both theoretical and practical aspects of broadcast media.

  • NDTV denies rumours of MetroNation shutdown

    NDTV denies rumours of MetroNation shutdown

    NEW DELHI: Speculation has been doing the rounds that NDTV might bring the shutter down on its city centric news channel MetroNation, which is currently operational in Delhi. However, the media company has cleared the air saying, that there is no question of a shutdown, rather it will go ahead with its planned launch of its MetroNation Chennai though a date has not been fixed yet.

    Speaking to indiantelevision.com NDTV MetroNation CEO Rajiv Lulla said, “We know there are lots of rumours doing the rounds with regards to MetroNation, but we are not going to close down the channel. Also our plan to launch the channel in Chennai is very much in progress. We have already hired about 90 people down south. However, we have not fixed the date for launching the channel yet.”

    NDTV has partnered with Kasturi & Sons Ltd, publisher of The Hindu to launch MetroNation Chennai.

    Kastrui & Sons managing director N. Murali added, “We will definitely launch the channel, but we are yet to decide the timing.”

    Earlier in August, 2008, Lulla had told indiantelevision.com that the NDTV Group will roll out the channel in Chennai by October-end followed by the launch of MetroNation Mumbai by end fiscal 2008-09.

    And while, NDTV Group is rationalising costs, the media company has not handed pink slips to its MetroNation employees in and continues to produce programming. Explained Lulla: “At this time of recession like every other company, we are also trying to control our costs as best as we can. But we have not cut any jobs as of now. Also the channel has fresh content on air till date.”

    MetroNation Delhi has about 165 employees at the moment.

  • NDTV Q3 net loss widens to Rs 1.2 billion

    NDTV Q3 net loss widens to Rs 1.2 billion

    MUMBAI: The grim tale of economic downturn continues with yet another media company posting poor third-quarter results. NDTV Ltd’s consolidated net loss has widened to Rs 1.21 billion, as against a loss of Rs 320.2 million in the quarter ended 31 December, 2007.

    The figures also capture the losses made on the entertainment and allied business of Rs 1.04 billion.

    NDTV’s revenue grew 12 per cent to Rs 1.31 billion, from Rs 1.08 billion a year ago.

    The company said that the change in the external environment and the economic downturn has resulted in a visible slowdown in advertising revenues not just for NDTV, but for the industry as a whole. It also mentioned that it has already initiated major rationalisation of costs on all fronts – distribution, personnel and administration, to improve efficiency and streamline operations.

    It claimed that the group has cash balance of over Rs 4 billion, net of all debt, to meet any future business expense requirements including new programming and developments.

    The company’s total expenditure stood at Rs 2.33 billion, nearly double from Rs 1.19 billion on a year-on-year basis. Operating expenses shot up mainly due to rise in marketing, distribution, promotional and production costs.

    On a standalone basis, NDTV posted a net loss of Rs 174.8 million for the third quarter ended 31 December 2008 while revenue was at Rs 825.9 million.

    NDTV has received confirmation of no objection from the stock exchanges (BSE, NSE) for the de-merger of news and entertainment businesses and it will be filing the scheme with the Delhi High Court, the company said in a statement.