ITV

Tag: NewsX

  • NewsX awards creative duties to TBWA

    NewsX awards creative duties to TBWA

    MUMBAI: Ahead of its relaunch, English news channel NewsX has assigned its creative duties to TBWAIndia.

    Sources say four agencies submitted their proposals and the account size is pegged at around Rs 200 million.

    NewsX is evaluating proposals for the media duties and will be taking a final call soon.

    The channel has recently made some senior appointments in the editorial and other division. The latest to join is Asian Age resident editor Seema Mustafa who will be spearheading national affairs coverage.

  • NaiDunia, Pocha buy NewsX

    NaiDunia, Pocha buy NewsX

    MUMBAI: The first of the mergers and acquisitions hit the media world just 9 days into the new year. INX News Pvt Ltd, part of the Peter Mukerjea, Indrani Mukerjea- owned INX Group, has been hawked off to Indi Media, a newly formed joint venture between NaiDunia promoter and CEO Vinay Chhajlani and former Businessworld editor Jehangir S Pocha. INX News runs the English language channel NewsX.

    Details of the transaction were not available, but Chhajlani confirmed that the deal had indeed taken place. Pocha too confirmed that Indi Media had bought out the entire holding of the existing investors in INX News. He added that he will be taking on a strong editorial role in the company.

    The employees of NewsX will continue to hold eight per cent ESOPs, parcelled out to them by the founder-promoters.

    Exiting from the TV news venture a little before a year of existence, INX Media founder and CEO Indrani Mukerjea’s pursuit was to create NewsX as a premier English news channel brand. While the promoters held 66 per cent in the news company, INX Media, supported by a clutch of private equity firms, had 26 per cent.

    INX News ran into rough weather pretty early with editor-in-chief Vir Sanghvi and his core team leaving the set-up amid controversial circumstances even before the launch of the channel.

    INX Media still runs a Hindi general entertainment channel 9X and a Bollywood music channel 9XM. The company is in talks to raise funds and has stopped airing fresh content on 9X.

    Chhajlani runs a Hindi newspaper with a footprint in Madhya Pradesh and has also created web and new media assets. TV broadcasting was a missing piece in his media plan.

    “We took over two months to value NewsX and found it a good pick. The English news space is not so cluttered and we were drawn in by the investments INX News had made into technology and infrastructure,” Chhajlani says.

    INX News had been talking to Rajeev Chandrasekhar’s Jupiter Capital and Dainik Bhaskar promoters, but could not come to an agreement on the price.

    Analysts closely tracking the sector say that Indi Media would not have paid much above the English news channel’s set-up cost. Both Indrani and Peter could not be contacted to obtain their comments on the acquisition price.

  • News channels hit record viewership in terror week

    News channels hit record viewership in terror week

    MUMBAI: As the deadly terror attacks struck Mumbai on 26 November, Indians all over the country stayed glued to news channels. Providing regular updates and a rigorous 60 hours of live TV coverage, the news genre gained immensely during this period.

    Hindi news channels occupied 22.4 per cent of the entire TV viewing share for the four days (26 to 29 November) of terror coverage, the highest the genre has ever recorded in Indian television. Hindi general entertainment channels, which enjoy maximum TV viewing, had a share of 19.5 per cent while Hindi movie channels took away a 15.1 per cent share, as per Tam data (C&S, 4+, HSM).

    For the week ended 29 November, Hindi news channels have seen a 10 per cent surge in market share to 16.1 per cent, from an average of 6.7 per cent in the prior four weeks (26 October to 22 November).

    Hindi general entertainment channels, which were not showing any fresh content due to the dispute between TV producers and workers, were hard hit, with the genre share sliding to 22 per cent for the week, from a previous four-week average of 32.4 per cent.

    The high-voltage drama has fetched Aaj Tak the highest number of viewers among the Hindi news channels. Aaj Tak has gained 6 per cent to enjoy a market share of 23 per cent for the week ended 29 November. The next big gainer in the Hindi news genre is Zee News, with a 3 per cent rise to 11 per cent.

    In the pack, Star News is at 16 per cent (gained 1 per cent) while India TV and IBN7 has seen no change which stand at 16 per cent and 11 per cent respectively.

    NDTV India also remains static at 8 per cent, followed by News24 and Samay both at 4 per cent. Tez has slipped by 1 per cent, DD news, Live India have fallen by 2 per cent each.

    In the English news genre, NDTV 24X7, which has gained 5 per cent, has captured the highest market share for the week with 30 per cent (C&S, 15+, All India). Times Now also gained 5 per cent to garner a share of 28 per cent.

    CNN-IBN lost in the numbers game, slipping 6 per cent to have a share of 24 per cent. Down the ladder, NewsX gained marginally to have a 9 per cent share among English news channels while Headlines Today fell from 13 per cent to 9 per cent.

  • NewsX launches annual documentary film festival

    NewsX launches annual documentary film festival

    NEW DELHI: NewsX has launched the ‘Annual NewsX documentary film festival’. The documentary film festival will begin in the last week of December in New Delhi. Currently, the event is in the final phase of short-listing process.

    Says NewsX marketing director Gautam Mukerjea, “We intend to extend the recesses of mainline or parallel cinema and offer an enriching and wholesome experience to our audience. The festival will serve as an exchange forum where the audience gets an opportunity to interact with the directors and vice-a-versa. It truly mirrors the spirit of our channel at large.”

    The festival is divided into short and feature documentaries and caters to a select audience that includes the decision makers in every business.

    The grand fiesta will kick off with director to audience tête-à-tête’s on the behind the scenes of the documentaries, followed by a daily showcasing of four to six documentaries.

    The winning documentary will get showcased on NewsX. Film makers can send their entries latest by 30 November.

  • NewsX lines up shows to cover Assembly polls

    NewsX lines up shows to cover Assembly polls

    NEW DELHI: NewsX has lined up a slew of programmes for the up-coming state Assembly elections.

    The programmng line-up includes coverage of daily happenings across various states and constituencies in ‘Poll Pulse’ everyday between 8.30 – 9 pm. Every Saturday at 9 pm the channel will show Be a Party to the Great Debate, featuring eminent local speakers, anchored by Shireen.

    The Contender will give a sneak peak to the Chief Ministerial candidates and their performance and perception, followed by a discussion with the panelists on their strengths, weaknesses and prospects on every Sunday between at 9.30 pm.

    Says INX News newsroom head Arup Ghosh, “The election series is all about unleashing stark realities, highlighting subjects that matter and showcasing people who will decide the country’s future. Be it the capital’s sealing drive and its aftermath, the politics of Jammu and Kashmir, Gujjar-protest for reservations in Rajasthan, impetus of naxalites in Chattisgarh and acute power shortage in Madhya Pradesh or national fiscal set back; the coverage will map it all. We want to enable our viewers to make an informed choice.”

    The 50-day programme schedule, will comprise daily, weekly and fortnightly shows leading to the grand finale delving on the results. The series will conclude with the Jammu & Kashmir poll results on 28 December.

  • NewsX ties up with A1GP as exclusive media partner

    NewsX ties up with A1GP as exclusive media partner

    NEW DELHI: English news channels NewsX has partnered with A1GP as its exclusive media partner.

    Says INX News marketing director Gautam, Mukerjea, “International sports like motor racing are becoming widely popular in our country and we are very excited about covering A1GP for the sports enthusiasts in India. The A1GP World Cup will provide the cutting-edge that our viewers expect from a news channel like NewsX, which also has a strong association with sports news programming.”

    The news channel’s team will travel with the Indian team for all six races and will show the action through programme Full Throttle, 30-minute-long feature on motor sports.

    The team for this season is led by Narain Karthikeyan, Armaan Ebrahim and Parthiv Sureshwaren.

  • NewsX launches Sport Grandstand with Linford Christie

    NewsX launches Sport Grandstand with Linford Christie

    MUMBAI: NewsX has launched a sports show, Sport Grandstand. The hour-long show will air every Saturday at 1 pm.

    The English news channel has roped in 100 metres Olympic champion Linford Christie for the show.

    The sports show will have 80 stories every week interlaced with sports guests, reporters live-ins, sports rankings, factiods and trivia.

    For the channel Vijay Amritraj will analyse Wimbledon and Chima Okerie for Euro 2008.

    Says INX News COO Vynsley Fernandes, ” From regular sports to highly popular but unusual games, Sport Grandstand covers every sporting action of the week from around the world. Our sports programmes have consistently enjoyed high viewership, satisfying the sports aficiondos.”

    Chirstie says, “Sports Grandstand is by far the most comprehensive sport show. It covers every important story every week, no matter where in the world.”

  • India best place in world for news channels: Purie

    India best place in world for news channels: Purie

    NEW DELHI: ‘India is a very dramatic country, and therefore it is the best country in the world to have television news channel – something is happening here every moment’.

    Accepting the Indiantelevision.com’s Lifetime Achievement Award at the Second News Television Awards function over the weekend, TV Today Group editor-in-chief and chairman Aroon Purie said the 24×7 news channels were probably the greatest invention of recent times since they changed the way people think and also affect public discourse. “A television channel is like a Formula One Car. It just goes on and on at a speed beyond your imagination”.

    “I love news – it is my passion”, said Purie, but added that it was unfair to blame TV news channels for everything. The TV news business was just over a decade old and ‘they still have to find their feet’, he said, adding that news channels had behaved tremendously against adverse circumstances.

    Referring to what he termed the ‘tyranny of TRPs’, he said news channels were judged by the minute. He hoped things would change in a couple of years when people start paying for the few news channels they wanted to see and did not get them all free. The TV news channel business would see greater expansion then,

    NDTV India’s Pankaj Pachauri, who won the Best News Anchor in Hindi award, said he was happy that news had been brought on the agenda as other TV awards were all for entertainment.

    Noting that the awards had been created for the TV news industry, Wanvari added that there was space for both entertainment and news awards. He pointed out that the awards had been decided by impartial juries that were not part of indiantelevision.com

    Rajdeep Sardesai who received the Best News Anchor Award in English for CNN IBN, said TV news was a tough competitive business which was presently facing a content crisis. He urged TV news channels to show greater unity amongst themselves.

    Speaking about the honours that the NDTV group of channels received, CEO KVL Narayan Rao said, “NDTV has a pool of the most talented and bright reporters, anchors, producers, editors and others in the Indian television industry today. We are honoured for being recognised for our quality of work and credible journalism”.

    HDTV-ready English news channel NewsX, from the INX Network was honoured with a special award for ‘Pioneering Initiatives in Digital Technology’ for its leadership role in technological innovation. 

    Said INX News chairman Indrani Mukerjea, “Our aim has been to bring a completely up-to-date news channel to the Indian television audience by combing world class technology with contemporary graphics and set designs. We have used an HDTV-ready format with a view to future proofing the technology. In addition, we adopted MPEG 4 for both, newsgathering and transmission, to ensure superior quality images. We are happy to know that the industry recognises our leadership role.”

  • NewsX ties up with The Economist for weekend show

    NewsX ties up with The Economist for weekend show

    MUMBAI: English news channel NewsX has tied up with international publisher, The Economist, to launch a weekly show called The Economist. Launching on this Saturday at 2:45 pm, while the show is packaged and produced by NewsX, The Economist will provide the content.

    The show will provide comprehensive analysis of global news from The Economist. It is spread over two segments,Politics This Week and Business This Week, which gives a concise commentary on the socio political stories and the key global business developments of the week.

    INX News chairperson Indrani Mukerjea says, “Our new weekly news programme, The Economist, is an initiative to fulfill our objective to provide complete and a global perspective on news from across the spectrum. We see the launch of this programme as the beginning of a long term association with The Economist.”

    The Economist aims to provide the audience with a comprehensive wrap up of the week’s political and business developments from across the world.

    “The Economist generates a substantial amount of audio and video stories through its global network and resources. Our two leading video titles Politics This Week and Business This Week have a strong audience loyalty. These two titles have been packaged by NewsX into an exclusive weekend news programme of international quality,” adds The Economist India associate publisher Suprio Guha Thakurta.

  • INX’s news channel NewsX launches

    INX’s news channel NewsX launches

    NEW DELHI: NewsX, the English news channel from the INX Media’s stable, has gone on air since 9 am this morning. But this is a soft launch as the prime target is now to get connected to as many operators as possible.

    Speaking to Indiantelevision.com, NewsX COO Vynsley Fernandes said, “We are on air and we have released both the audio and video line for the operators, and taken off the ‘test signals’ band from the screen to facilitate the tuning of our signals.”

    Fernandes added, “The reason we are calling this a soft launch is that we are at the moment not promoting the channel but ensuring that the operators get our signals, both audio and video just right.”

    He said also that as and when an area gets seeded through the cable operator the subscribers can see the channel’s entire programming from today.

    INX Media founder-CEO Indrani Mukerjea said, “The period from March 2007 to March 2008 has been the most interesting year fro INX Media. We have achieved all that we planned and set out to achieve so far all in a years time from ground zero starting on 1 March, 2007 with one desk and one peon. 2008 is the year for INX and we will do everything to make it the most successful and promising enterprise in the country.”