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Tag: News Nation

  • News Nation readies second channel launch as it celebrates first anniversary

    News Nation readies second channel launch as it celebrates first anniversary

    MUMBAI: As the country heads into general elections, there’s a regional Hindi news channel being added.

     

    As it celebrates its first anniversary today, News Nation, a national Hindi news channel, has geared up to enter the regional news channel space with the launch of a channel for the states of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.

     

    News Nation’s news channel for Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand is all set to be launched on 19 February. The new channel already has 200 employees on board. The dry runs of the news channel are on but the name of the channel has not yet been disclosed.

     

    The Uttar Pradesh/Uttarakhand channel will operate from two main offices in Lucknow and Dehradun and have bureaus in 10 other cities, including in Varanasi, Jhansi, Meerut and Agra.

     

    News Nation’s Senior Editor Ranjeet Kumar will be the editorial head of the Uttar Pradesh/Uttarakhand channel.

     

    The channel on the launch day will be available to all cable TV viewers in the two states as well as to subscribers of DTH television service provider Freedish.

     

    News Nation has invested almost Rs 50 crore in its second news channel. A marketing campaign for the new channel, like in the case of News Nation, will follow a month after the launch.

     

    The new channel will initially be free of advertisements. “We have a rule that we let the people sample the content we have, get the ratings and then reach out to advertisers,” says News Nation CEO and Editor-in-Chief, Shailesh Kumar.

     

    The programming of the channel will be youth focussed. The vibrant colours of the two states will reflect in the logo as compared to the neutral logo of the national channel.

     

    The Uttar Pradesh/Uttarakhand news channel will not have the usual programming focussed on entertainment, crime and astrology. The channel will have hard news but minus any sensationalism. “You can compare News Nation to any international channel,” says Kumar buoyantly.

     

    The network has ambitious plans to expand its presence in the country. “We are currently studying markets to identify areas that are lacking good quality news channels and after that we will choose our locations,” says Kumar. He also added that there is no restriction on staying just in the Hindi Speaking Market (HSM).

     

    According to TAM data provided by the channel, News Nation has garnered an average of 68 TVTs between weeks 3 and 6 for CS 15+ age group in the HSM.

     

    News Nation is looking at signing annual advertisement deals with various clients before the election season sets in. Currently, it only has four to five minutes of advertising per hour.

     

    After having built a credible space for itself within a year, News Nation is optimistic that its first regional channel will also achieve similar success.

     

    “The road for us was not easy as this is an extremely cluttered genre. We clearly understood that there was a need for a Hindi news channel which was aggressive yet relevant, a channel based on pure news content yet blooming with new ideas and therefore, we came up with News Nation and within months of its launch it crossed over its competitors in terms of ratings,” says Kumar.

  • News Nation: Aap ka Vote Aapki Huqumat-the post poll picture !!

    News Nation: Aap ka Vote Aapki Huqumat-the post poll picture !!

    MUMBAI: With the curtains drawn on polling on 4 December 2013 ,a pertinent question arises as to who will win the semi-final of general election? Which party will get majority and what are the dominating issues prevalent in the five election states. News Nation will unfold the emerging political scenario and equations with multidisciplinary research organization C-Fore which will further reflect the larger picture of the Lok Sabha elections. This would be one the most reliable post poll survey of the country as all the conclusions would be based on statistical analysis of the responses drawn from different constituencies of the states.

    In the five hour long marathon show today 5:00 pm onwards ‘Aap Ka vote Aap ki Huqumat”, News Nation will break down data region wise and will take opinions from experts, eminent and renowned journalists of the country. With the help of brilliantly designed graphics, News Nation will showcase the possible results of the counting day.

    The show will culminate with a candid panel discussion on the likely winning & losing parties & candidates. In a simple yet powerful way News Nation will explain how your vote had made the difference.

  • Notching up visibility: News Nation

    Notching up visibility: News Nation

    MUMBAI: It’s already very crowded in the Hindi news genre, but this new entrant believes it can make a difference.

    Enter News Nation: the Hindi news channel launched in February, promoted by Newsnation Network, having Abhay Oswal as chairman and veteran journalist Shailesh Kumar as editor in chief.

    Targeted at an educated and sophisticated Hindi-speaking audience and offering insights into politics, crime, corruption, cricket and Bollywood, the channel is now preparing to announce its arrival on the Hindi news stage.

    While work on News Nation began one-and-a-half years ago, the marketing campaign only started taking shape three to four months back. According to sources, approximately Rs 10-12 crore have been spent on the entire promotional campaign.

     Of which, the TVC campaign branded ‘Khabrein Jo Banti Hai Aapki Power’ kicked-off on 18 September and will run till the end of this month on channels including Colors, Star Plus, Sony, Sab, Life OK, Sony Max, Star Gold, Movies OK, Times Now, CNN IBN, ET Now, CNBC TV 18, CNBC Awaaz, NGC, Discovery and Animal Planet. Both TVCs created by McCann Erickson sport a retro look and give the message that News Nation will keep audiences up-to-speed with ‘news they can use’.

    With HSM markets in the age group 15+ male across SEC A B and C as the channel’s target audience, advertisements have been placed in key spots during the day such as the popular show Comedy Nights with Kapil on Colors, the Lootera premiere on Sony, and the soon to premiere Once Upon Ay Time in Mumbai Dobaara also on Sony.

     

    Meanwhile, radio and outdoor campaigns are scheduled to begin mid-October, to run till the first week of November. Regular advertisements will run across prominent radio stations in Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad and Jaipur. Apart from these, contests will run either as contest on the TVC or as election-based.

    Across the HSM market, 10-11 cities will witness outdoor advertising from News Nation. Approximately 810 hoardings and bus shelters and transportation vehicles have been blocked to feature the channel’s ads. Trade sites are a priority on the digital front. A search engine optimisation will soon be conducted, allowing visibility to increase four-fold. The digital department, operated by a five-member team, aims to get more robust.

    The entire campaign is being handled by a marketing team comprising three of the 320 employees in the organisation which includes everyone in the head office in Noida and bureaus in Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata as also the Hindi-speaking states. As of now, News Nation has no plans to enter the southern market.
    Now that there’s a newbie in an already cluttered Hindi news space, only time will tell if it creates a unique identity or blends into the crowd.