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Tag: Quintillion Media

  • Newsroom shake-up as Anil Uniyal exits NDTV after two eventful years

    Newsroom shake-up as Anil Uniyal exits NDTV after two eventful years

    MUMBAI: After steering the ship through a crucial phase, Anil Uniyal has stepped down as chief operating Officer of NDTV, wrapping up a two-year tenure that saw him deeply involved in shaping the channel’s post-acquisition identity and relaunching NDTV Profit. Uniyal’s resignation, as reported by multiple media outlets, closes another chapter in a career that’s been synonymous with leadership in Indian business newsrooms from Network18 to Quint and now NDTV. His departure adds another twist to NDTV’s evolving story under the Adani Media Group umbrella.

    During his stint at NDTV, Uniyal was known to have worked closely with Sanjay Pugalia and played a key role in stabilising the broadcaster’s business operations. He also had a hand in reviving NDTV Profit, the business news channel that absorbed operations from the now-defunct BloombergQuint.

    Speaking to Indian Television Dot Com Uniyal said he is yet to decide his next move on the professional front.

    Before joining NDTV in 2022, Uniyal served as CEO at Bloombergquint, where he helped position the venture as a significant digital destination for financial and business news. That journey began in 2016, after Bloomberg’s tie-up with Quintillion Media, and culminated in the platform’s eventual acquisition and integration into the NDTV family.

    His earlier stint at Network18 between 2011 and 2016 was equally prolific, where he held leadership roles across CNBC-TV18, CNBC Awaaz, CNBC Bajar, and Forbes India. As COO, he was instrumental in driving the group’s business news portfolio forward.

    While Uniyal’s next move remains under wraps, industry watchers are keenly eyeing where he lands next. One thing is certain: wherever he goes, he’s sure to bring newsroom know-how and sharp operational chops with him.
     

  • Sanjay Pugalia excited about joining Raghav Bahl’s Quintillion Media

    Sanjay Pugalia excited about joining Raghav Bahl’s Quintillion Media

    MUMBAI: Former editor of CNBC Awaaz and CNBC Bajaar, Sanjay Pugalia has joined Raghav Bahl’s The Quint. He has joined as president and editorial director of the group, which includes media properties like The Quint and BloombergQuint.

    Pugalia will report to Bahl. His main focus will be on setting up Hindi digital news platform for the venture and will also play an important role in various other verticals of Quintillion Media.

    Excited about joining hands with Bahl, Pugalia said, “It’s indeed a pleasure to work with Raghav Bahl who has set high standard and goals in this field. I am excited about the new young team that has been put in place. Their work in English is extremely impressive.”

    Pugalia’s induction is part of Quintillion Media’s strategy to explode its regional presence, which it has been piloting over the past few months.
    “The results of the pilot have been most encouraging, and provide the impetus to take the next step: amp up the growth. I am also delighted to be working again with Raghav after spending a decade together with him in building CNBC Awaaz and Bajaar”, added Pugalia.

    Bloomberg Media had joined hands with Quintillion Media on 13 April 2016. The result of the union will take birth in the next month as BloombergQuint India will deliver business and financial news over traditional broadcast, digital and live events in the subcontinent.

    “In Sanjay, we have a most accomplished professional who can help quickly scale up several of our news properties. I have the highest respect for Sanjay’s acute understanding of news and current affairs. It’s a privilege to have him on the team”, said Quintillion Media founder Raghav Bahl.
    With more than 25 years of experience in print and TV, Pugalia was till recently the editor-in-chief of CNBC Awaaz. Before that he was the News Director for Star TV. He has also held significant roles at BBC, Aaj Tak, Navbharat Times and Business Standard.

  • Sanjay Pugalia excited about joining Raghav Bahl’s Quintillion Media

    Sanjay Pugalia excited about joining Raghav Bahl’s Quintillion Media

    MUMBAI: Former editor of CNBC Awaaz and CNBC Bajaar, Sanjay Pugalia has joined Raghav Bahl’s The Quint. He has joined as president and editorial director of the group, which includes media properties like The Quint and BloombergQuint.

    Pugalia will report to Bahl. His main focus will be on setting up Hindi digital news platform for the venture and will also play an important role in various other verticals of Quintillion Media.

    Excited about joining hands with Bahl, Pugalia said, “It’s indeed a pleasure to work with Raghav Bahl who has set high standard and goals in this field. I am excited about the new young team that has been put in place. Their work in English is extremely impressive.”

    Pugalia’s induction is part of Quintillion Media’s strategy to explode its regional presence, which it has been piloting over the past few months.
    “The results of the pilot have been most encouraging, and provide the impetus to take the next step: amp up the growth. I am also delighted to be working again with Raghav after spending a decade together with him in building CNBC Awaaz and Bajaar”, added Pugalia.

    Bloomberg Media had joined hands with Quintillion Media on 13 April 2016. The result of the union will take birth in the next month as BloombergQuint India will deliver business and financial news over traditional broadcast, digital and live events in the subcontinent.

    “In Sanjay, we have a most accomplished professional who can help quickly scale up several of our news properties. I have the highest respect for Sanjay’s acute understanding of news and current affairs. It’s a privilege to have him on the team”, said Quintillion Media founder Raghav Bahl.
    With more than 25 years of experience in print and TV, Pugalia was till recently the editor-in-chief of CNBC Awaaz. Before that he was the News Director for Star TV. He has also held significant roles at BBC, Aaj Tak, Navbharat Times and Business Standard.

  • BloombergQuint: Business reporting the cross platform way

    BloombergQuint: Business reporting the cross platform way

    MUMBAI: The old TV news warhorse is back. After selling his Network18 business to Reliance’s Mukesh Ambani a couple of years ago, Raghav Bahl burst back on to the scene with a new digital venture Quintillion Media. Now the firm has got into bed with the global business information power house Bloomberg Media. The result of the union will take birth in the next three months as BloombergQuint India which will deliver business and financial news over traditional broadcast, digital and live events in the subcontinent.

    Bahl says journalism will be at the core of BloombergQuint India. Bloomberg recently dissolved its partnership in a company that included Reliance, UTV’s Ronnie Screwvala and had been operational in India as a TV channel for about eight years as UTV Bloomberg.

    Bahl believes that the entry of BloombergQuint in the hypercompetitive news space heralds challenges for both the partners, but they are up for the task. Says he: “It is a great sense of dejavu for us. We created this space which is now very powerful. We have created brands that are powerful. And now we are getting back in this space with a new offering and a new brand. There is a need for disruption and that’s where BloombergQuint stands which you will see with the service being rolled out. We have money…. and we are hoping to get good advertisers on board.”

    Bloomberg Media International managing director Parry Ravindranath explains that the Quintillion marks a first for his company.

    “We have been in India for around 20 years, “ he says. “But this is the first Bloomberg cross platform partnership. We continue to break new ground in news and deliver the best content in Asia’s fastest growing market.”

    And the decision to partner with Raghav was a natural one. “This is a second coming for Raghav and he has pioneered the business news genre in broadcast and digital in India. And he was my first boss,” adds Ravindranath with a smile.

    Adds his boss in the US Bloomberg Media CEO Justin Smith: ” It was clear when we met Raghav that we shared a common vision to create India’s premier digitally-led multi-platform business media company. And that met with our global vision. Currently, almost half of our digital traffic comes from outside the US and this figure continues to grow. Partnering with Quintillion Media in India is a game-changer for the country’s digital and broadcast media industries, and for Bloomberg Media globally as we take our investment to an exciting new phase.”

    “As the fastest growing major economy in the world, India is one of the most important stories we are covering in Asia. I’m glad we are partnering with Raghav and his team who have deep experience reporting on India for the past two decades,” chips in Bloomberg News APAC executive editor David Merritt.

    With the joint venture signed just a few days back, a gaggle of news professionals are being hired and it looks like its homecoming for them. The company has roped in former CNBC TV18 CEO Anil Uniyal and former CNBC-TV18 executive editor Menaka Doshi to serve as BloombergQuint’s CEO and managing editor respectively. Harsha Subramaniam, a Bloomberg executive producer will oversee the partnership for Bloomberg across platforms.

    “We have a set of robust colleagues on board joined by solid associates which we had in Network 18. I am delighted to have them with us. We also have Ritu Kapur with us and we are very confident about our product. They also bring a fantastic news structure. We are very proud that a global company has partnered with us,” says Bahl.

    It might be recalled that back in 2014, Bahl left a void in his own Network 18 group which was taken over by the Reliance Group. After Bahl moved out, the group also witnessed resignations from Sai Kumar, Ajay Chacko, RDS Bawa, Rajdeep Sardesai and Sagarika Ghose. Wishing Bahl luck for his new joint venture, India Today Group consulting editor Rajdeep Sardesai said, “I wish him very well. I have had enjoyable years with him and have shared an excellent relationship with Raghav.”

    “There is enormous potential in the English news genre and it’s only expanding. For now, they will have to follow the ad driven revenue model, but in the long run, every channel will love to follow a subscription revenue model,” says media analyst and IIM Calcutta professor Chandradeep (CD) Mitra. “A new channel can be successful if it has compelling content, great market presence and on-ground action. As advertisers are reluctant about going on new platforms, the channel can either give attractive rates or start with one well-known brand on board. Creating an impression helps a channel irrespective of whether it is earning profits or incurring losses.”

    The two properties – one, a linear product (television) and the other non-linear (online and digital), will completely be integrated. “There is no specific strategy for either of the products. The strategy will depend on the nature of the platform. On digital, social virality and distribution are important, while on TV distribution and breaking news play a vital role. We want to provide good quality content to the maximum number of households and also hope to bring advertisers on board,” says Bahl.

    With English news focused on six metros, the genre is often considered to be niche. And Bahl agrees that this is what BloombergQuint will concentrate on. “In India, the majority of our audience is there. But I think the audience will increase outside this catchment in sometime quickly,” he says. “But we are seeing audiences coming from tier two and three cities. We will provide content to wherever audiences are. We are a nationwide distributed TV property and on the digital front, we want to leave a global footprint.”

    “We have a huge source of content at Bloomberg and only hope to cater to a much larger audience in India and globally. Business is not niche; everyone gets affected by it,” adds Ravindranath.

    Both he and Bahl pooh-pooh the thought that digital and online is killing linear television. “TV will definitely survive as the core ethos remains the same. No. The commercials have caught up,” says Ravindranath.

    “The entire debate is incorrect. It’s not digital versus TV, its linear and nonlinear, static and mobile, family to individualistic”, adds Bahl.

    The launches will be heavily promoted on social media and will also see newsroom anchors indulging in social interactive services like Instagram and Whatsapp. “The intention is to push the traffic. Digital promotion is a big thing. We have a full business plan for everything. You just have to wait and watch,” says Ravindranath.

    And indeed everyone will be waiting and watching how messrs Bahl and Bloomberg fare in their second innings.

  • BloombergQuint: Business reporting the cross platform way

    BloombergQuint: Business reporting the cross platform way

    MUMBAI: The old TV news warhorse is back. After selling his Network18 business to Reliance’s Mukesh Ambani a couple of years ago, Raghav Bahl burst back on to the scene with a new digital venture Quintillion Media. Now the firm has got into bed with the global business information power house Bloomberg Media. The result of the union will take birth in the next three months as BloombergQuint India which will deliver business and financial news over traditional broadcast, digital and live events in the subcontinent.

    Bahl says journalism will be at the core of BloombergQuint India. Bloomberg recently dissolved its partnership in a company that included Reliance, UTV’s Ronnie Screwvala and had been operational in India as a TV channel for about eight years as UTV Bloomberg.

    Bahl believes that the entry of BloombergQuint in the hypercompetitive news space heralds challenges for both the partners, but they are up for the task. Says he: “It is a great sense of dejavu for us. We created this space which is now very powerful. We have created brands that are powerful. And now we are getting back in this space with a new offering and a new brand. There is a need for disruption and that’s where BloombergQuint stands which you will see with the service being rolled out. We have money…. and we are hoping to get good advertisers on board.”

    Bloomberg Media International managing director Parry Ravindranath explains that the Quintillion marks a first for his company.

    “We have been in India for around 20 years, “ he says. “But this is the first Bloomberg cross platform partnership. We continue to break new ground in news and deliver the best content in Asia’s fastest growing market.”

    And the decision to partner with Raghav was a natural one. “This is a second coming for Raghav and he has pioneered the business news genre in broadcast and digital in India. And he was my first boss,” adds Ravindranath with a smile.

    Adds his boss in the US Bloomberg Media CEO Justin Smith: ” It was clear when we met Raghav that we shared a common vision to create India’s premier digitally-led multi-platform business media company. And that met with our global vision. Currently, almost half of our digital traffic comes from outside the US and this figure continues to grow. Partnering with Quintillion Media in India is a game-changer for the country’s digital and broadcast media industries, and for Bloomberg Media globally as we take our investment to an exciting new phase.”

    “As the fastest growing major economy in the world, India is one of the most important stories we are covering in Asia. I’m glad we are partnering with Raghav and his team who have deep experience reporting on India for the past two decades,” chips in Bloomberg News APAC executive editor David Merritt.

    With the joint venture signed just a few days back, a gaggle of news professionals are being hired and it looks like its homecoming for them. The company has roped in former CNBC TV18 CEO Anil Uniyal and former CNBC-TV18 executive editor Menaka Doshi to serve as BloombergQuint’s CEO and managing editor respectively. Harsha Subramaniam, a Bloomberg executive producer will oversee the partnership for Bloomberg across platforms.

    “We have a set of robust colleagues on board joined by solid associates which we had in Network 18. I am delighted to have them with us. We also have Ritu Kapur with us and we are very confident about our product. They also bring a fantastic news structure. We are very proud that a global company has partnered with us,” says Bahl.

    It might be recalled that back in 2014, Bahl left a void in his own Network 18 group which was taken over by the Reliance Group. After Bahl moved out, the group also witnessed resignations from Sai Kumar, Ajay Chacko, RDS Bawa, Rajdeep Sardesai and Sagarika Ghose. Wishing Bahl luck for his new joint venture, India Today Group consulting editor Rajdeep Sardesai said, “I wish him very well. I have had enjoyable years with him and have shared an excellent relationship with Raghav.”

    “There is enormous potential in the English news genre and it’s only expanding. For now, they will have to follow the ad driven revenue model, but in the long run, every channel will love to follow a subscription revenue model,” says media analyst and IIM Calcutta professor Chandradeep (CD) Mitra. “A new channel can be successful if it has compelling content, great market presence and on-ground action. As advertisers are reluctant about going on new platforms, the channel can either give attractive rates or start with one well-known brand on board. Creating an impression helps a channel irrespective of whether it is earning profits or incurring losses.”

    The two properties – one, a linear product (television) and the other non-linear (online and digital), will completely be integrated. “There is no specific strategy for either of the products. The strategy will depend on the nature of the platform. On digital, social virality and distribution are important, while on TV distribution and breaking news play a vital role. We want to provide good quality content to the maximum number of households and also hope to bring advertisers on board,” says Bahl.

    With English news focused on six metros, the genre is often considered to be niche. And Bahl agrees that this is what BloombergQuint will concentrate on. “In India, the majority of our audience is there. But I think the audience will increase outside this catchment in sometime quickly,” he says. “But we are seeing audiences coming from tier two and three cities. We will provide content to wherever audiences are. We are a nationwide distributed TV property and on the digital front, we want to leave a global footprint.”

    “We have a huge source of content at Bloomberg and only hope to cater to a much larger audience in India and globally. Business is not niche; everyone gets affected by it,” adds Ravindranath.

    Both he and Bahl pooh-pooh the thought that digital and online is killing linear television. “TV will definitely survive as the core ethos remains the same. No. The commercials have caught up,” says Ravindranath.

    “The entire debate is incorrect. It’s not digital versus TV, its linear and nonlinear, static and mobile, family to individualistic”, adds Bahl.

    The launches will be heavily promoted on social media and will also see newsroom anchors indulging in social interactive services like Instagram and Whatsapp. “The intention is to push the traffic. Digital promotion is a big thing. We have a full business plan for everything. You just have to wait and watch,” says Ravindranath.

    And indeed everyone will be waiting and watching how messrs Bahl and Bloomberg fare in their second innings.

  • Raghav Bahl invests $3.25 million in Quintype

    Raghav Bahl invests $3.25 million in Quintype

    MUMBAI: Indian entrepreneur Raghav Bahl is invested $3.25 million in the California based data-driven publishing company Quintype.

     

    The company will use the capital raised to enhance product and business development. Specifically, the funding will be used to grow the product engineering, and sales teams, across locations in the US Bay Area, as well as in Bangalore, India.

     

    Bahl’s Quintillion Media runs a news site in India called The Quint, which was launched earlier this year on the Quintype platform.

     

    Quintype founder Amit Rathore said, “We are excited to have Mr. Bahl support our company as he has, and are looking forward to using the funds to grow the company even more, particularly from a business standpoint. At Quintype, our goal is to make it just as easy to start a non-trivial media operation, as it is to start a blog. So, if you want to start a new online magazine, or a news site or app, or any other high-velocity content property, you’ll be able to do it in minutes.”

     

    The Quintype platform is a seamless, end-to-end SaaS service that brings together all the functionality you need to run a modern media business, including everything needed to create and distribute content, understand and grow your audience, and also monetise that content. Because they’re all seamlessly integrated, these various functions work together extremely well, letting publishers focus on their content business, while the Quintype platform manages all the technology heavy lifting. It includes functionality like cardification, collaboration and team workflow tools, advanced semantic analytics, personalisation and recommendation systems, an advanced monetisation engine, and several other modules.

     

    This SaaS offering lets media organisations reduce technology costs, while at the same time, leveraging big data and predictive analytics to increase revenue and profits. In fact, Quintype’s business model is unique. The entire state-of-the-art platform is available to anyone, free of cost. Quintype partners with publishers by making money through a revenue-share model, effectively aligning their interests with that of the publisher. Quintype only makes money when the publisher does.

     

    Quintype also allows publishers to define more-nuanced audience segments, an attractive proposition for advertisers as well. Quintype takes this first-party data to the next level.

     

    Bahl, who launched his company Quintillion Media, after selling Network18 to Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries, has been investing in multiple ventures. Most recently he invested Rs 4 crore in the media platform Youth Ki Awaaz as well as in the women-oriented job portal Sheroes.

  • Raghav Bahl’s Quintillion Media invests Rs 4 crore in Youth Ki Awaaz

    Raghav Bahl’s Quintillion Media invests Rs 4 crore in Youth Ki Awaaz

    MUMBAI: Raghav Bahl and Ritu Kapur led Quintillion Media, has invested Rs 4 crore in an angel round in Youth Ki Awaaz, a media platform for the youth to address some of the world’s most pressing issues – through thoughtful opinions and reportage.

     

    Kapur will join the board of the Youth Ki Awaaz parent – YKA Media Private Limited. BMR Advisors acted as transaction advisors to Quintillion Media and Novistra Capital acted as transaction advisors to Youth Ki Awaaz.

     

    Youth Ki Awaaz is a completely crowd-sourced digital media company, which aims to break the top-down, one-way approach of traditional media, making news creation and dissemination a collaborative/community led model. The platform’s approach to media is founded on the idea that public opinion is the new superpower, and that the media can do more to engage the current generation. From analysis and opinions on politics, to the latest on art and culture, Youth Ki Awaaz is a smorgasbord of personal stories, issue-centric writing and rights based interventions. The website receives over a million readers a month, and has contributions from over 30,000 writers from across India and the world.

     

    Youth Ki Awaaz founder Anshul Tewari said, “The last one year has seen a sudden rise in digital news and opinion platforms. With millions of dollars pouring into new startups, the growth is phenomenal. However, similar to traditional media, digital media too seems to be veering away from being people-focused. YKA on the other hand is a completely people driven digital media platform. With veterans like Raghav Bahl and Ritu Kapur on board as partners, we feel both privileged and excited to start a new and even more adventurous phase in pushing this generations opinions to the front. The capital will be invested in expanding our team, tech and business model.”

     

    The Quint co-founder Ritu Kapur added, “We were impressed by the idea conceived by Anshul and the team in creating Youth Ki Awaaz. In a short period of time, they have managed to carve a niche for themselves in the digital media space by creating a people driven digital media platform. We find their content to be high on both appeal as well as quality, which is a fine balance to strike. We are confident that they will continue to grow to greater heights in the coming future.”

  • Raghav Bahl on why digital is the next big medium for journalists

    Raghav Bahl on why digital is the next big medium for journalists

    MUMBAI: Raghav Bahl, who recently launched his venture The Quint, is quite bullish about the booming digital ecosystem in India. In a self written note published on social media, the media mogul lists the various opportunities offered by social media platforms.

     

    According to Bahl, first and foremost there is immediate threat to the editor but in order to survive, he must adapt to evolving needs in the digital environment. For starters, he will have to ensure that content is not text heavy but crisper and sharper and focused towards the consumption patterns of “millennials”. For the uninitiated the term stands for those individuals reaching young adulthood by the year 2000 or simply known as ‘Generation X’.

     

    In his second point, Bahl explains how in the current day “journalistic scoops,” which give an exclusive edge and add the “I broke it First” feeling to a journalist, will be over time replaced by scoops that are released first online and distributed to the public. He provides examples of how infamous outfits like the Boko Haram have been releasing detrimental videos online.

     

    Moving further Bahl is of the opinion that social media and its blue eyed platforms namely Facebook and Google, will be an independent journalist’s best friend instead of a newspaper and TV, which have limited reach. He compares the strength of the digital medium a force that offers ‘viral velocity’ to a newsman’s work.

     

    In his fourth point, Bahl elaborates about the two way communication model involved in the cyber space, which allows content creators, journalists and opinion leader to receive real time feedback. Thanks to the algorithmic trend sheets and tools a journalist can very well be equipped to know exactly how to spark argumentative conversations that can help fuel fruitful debates.

     

    In conclusion, Bahl says that the new team at Quint has taught him to learn valuable lessons at daily edit meets as he grasps the new lingo of Generation X.

     

    The full article can be read here: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/quint-six-months-flat-raghav-bahl?trk=mp-reader-card

     

  • 2014: The year of big movements in the news channel space

    2014: The year of big movements in the news channel space

    MUMBAI: The year 2014 was an important year for the news channel industry, monetarily and otherwise. The bonus for the industry was the national election which not only kept them busy for the first half of the year, but also sent all the networks into profits for the first financial quarter. However, several changes took place on the people front with numerous big names moving out from their associated companies.

    The biggest shocker that hit the industry was the acquisition of Network18 by Reliance Industries’ subsidiary Independent Media Trust, putting the entire TV18 (news channels) section under the Mukesh Ambani conglomerate. Network18 founder and chairman Raghav Bahl, this year sold his baby to Ambani for a whopping Rs 4000 crore. Bahl has now set up his own new venture in the mobile space called Quintillion Media.

     

    What followed this was an upheaval of sorts, as one by one, the main pillars of the company began to fall. As soon as the meeting concluded between Bahl and the management of Network18, departures began which included group CEO B Sai Kumar, COO Ajay Chacko, CNN-IBN deputy editor Sagarika Ghose, IBN Network editor in chief Rajdeep Sardesai, Network18 Media CEO Sanjay Dua, Network18 digital CEO Durga Raghunath, Network 18 CFO RDS Binni Bawa and deputy foreign affairs editor Suhasini Haidar.

    Soon after, the discussion circled the possibilities of news manipulation by the conglomerate as well as editorial interference started cropping up. In order to assuage the racing thoughts of the employees, the newly formed management took a town hall meeting. A new set of executives joined the company including former Zee Media CEO Alok Agrawal who took charge as Network18 group COO, Umesh Upadhyay as news director, Rohit Bansal as non executive director, Hariharan Mahadevan as CFO and Deepak Parekh and Adil Zainulbhai as independent directors.

    The year also saw several people shifting loyalties due to various reasons. The biggest of them were Rajdeep Sardesai joining India Today as consulting editor and primetime anchor, Dilip Venkatraman and Savvy Venkatraman joining ITV Network as group COO of strategy and business development and group chief marketing officer respectively, former Indian Express editor in chief Shekhar Gupta moving to India Today as the vice chairman and editor in chief of news properties but within two months relinquishing his positions and becoming editorial advisor to the group and Sanjay Dua joining ITV Network as NewsX CEO and ITV network chief revenue officer.

    Months after Times Television Network MD and CEO Sunil Lulla was elevated to BCCL Group president of corporate development, he quit the company to join Grey group India as chairman and managing director.  Meanwhile, Times Now, ET Now and Zoom CEO Avinash Kaul went to IBN18 Network as CEO. ITV Network elevated CEO RK Arora to group CEO and soon after Arora quit to join News Nation as its CEO, which had been vacated by Shailesh Kumar, the former CEO and editor in chief of the channel. Kumar recently joined Focus Group as the managing editor for regional channels. Neeraj Sanan who headed distribution and marketing for MCCS that operates ABP news channels, quit and went to Focus Group as group CEO.

    News Xpress CEO and editor in chief Vinod Kapri decided to step down as well and was replaced by Prasoon Shukla. Early in the year, CNN-IBN managing editor Ashutosh quit to join the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and was replaced by Vinay Tewari who after several months shifted to Headlines Today as managing editor, a place left vacant by Nalin Mehta. Radhakrishnan Nair was appointed in place of Tewari.

    On the business side, Bloomberg TV India editor in chief Vivek Law quit to pursue entrepreneurial activities and the position was filled by Siddharth Zarabi. Zee News resident editor Sumit Awasthi joined IBN7 as deputy managing editor. News24 managing editor Ajit Anjum joined India TV in the same capacity. QW Naqvi who joined India TV as editorial director, left after a few months’ stint.

    On the international channels side, Naveen Jhunjhunwala replaced Preet Dhupar as BBC Global India COO while Ravi Agrawal was appointed as CNN International bureau chief for India. Bhupendra Chaubey who became executive editor of CNN-IBN, post takeover by Reliance, decided to shift his role to consulting editor. The year also saw the demise of veteran journalist Jehangir Pocha.

    The News Broadcasters Association (NBA) has been fighting tooth and nail for keeping news broadcasters out of the 12 minute ad cap. The case is still being heard in the High Court for more than a year. NDTV executive vice chairperson KVL Narayan Rao, after four years of heading the NBA as president was succeeded by India TV chairman and editor in chief Rajat Sharma. A new entity called the All India News Broadcasters Association (AINBA) was formed for the regional news channels with Azad News chairman MS Walia as its chairman.

    The other big takeover rumour that was making rounds was about the Adani group trying to stake claim in NDTV (which completed 25 years) which the company vehemently stated as a false one.

    The year also saw a few channel launches such as CNBC Bajar, News Nation UP/Uttarakhand, several regional news channels under the ETV group (now under Network18), Zee Purvaiya and Zee Kalinga which have now been converted into fully entertainment as against the earlier format of 50 per cent news and 50 per cent entertainment.

    2014 was also the year of revamps, with India TV, IBN7, NewsX, News Xpress and Zee News changing the look and feel of the channel. NDTV Profit converted into a dual channel NDTV Profit/Prime, with Prime operating as a fully sponsored channel, aimed at easing out the losses being made by Profit over the years.

    The 16th Lok Sabha general election added the much needed boost to the balance sheets of news channels that have been cribbing about high carriage fees, low subscription fees and advertising rates. CNN-IBN and Times Now came up with their election apps. The latter also tied up with north east channel News Live for poll coverage. Network18 tied up with Microsoft to set up an analytics centre for the elections while BBC used WhatsApp and WeChat for getting more traction from Indian audiences. This election season saw a new trend: that of editors moving out of the comfort zone of their studio and reporting from ground zero.

    As we approach the new year, burning issues are yet to be resolved such as the ad cap, carriage fees, paid news as well as foreign direct investment in news channels which is still stuck at 26 per cent and does not seem to have a better future any time soon.