ITV

Tag: Suvarna News

  • Suvarna News moves to new office, announces content changes

    Suvarna News moves to new office, announces content changes

    BANGALORE: Rajeev Chandrasekhar’s Kannada news channel, Suvarna News 24×7, has moved to a new premise in Bangalore.

    The new office and studio were inaugurated by the current Karnataka Chief m Minister Jagdish Shettar who also read out the 9 am bulletin.

    As a part of the celebrations, Karnataka law minister Suresh Kumar turned a journalist and interviewed on screen all the senior staff members of Suvarna. Bangalore City Mayor presented the city news bulletin- ‘Bangalore First’; Sandalwood actor Upendra presented the Prime Time News @ 9 pm. Actress Bhavana interviewed Karnataka Minsiter Sobha Karanlaje for a women’s program, ‘Suhasini’.

    Actor Sudeep was besieged with questions by six lady anchors of Suvarna on a chit chat program.

    Suvarna News Editor in Chief Vishweshwar Bhat said, “Change, according to the trend, is a must and change is a mark of creativity. We are changing not only the offices, studios and looks but also in terms of content and style of presentation. We will make our viewers part of this change by taking their suggestions and implementing them wherever and whenever necessary.”

    Suvarna News CEO Suresh Selvaraj said, “Shifting of the studios was an opportunity for us to bring in changes along with it. The changeover of the studios was such a smooth and seamless process. Perhaps it is very rare and may be the first time in the country that not a single second was lost in transmission during the shifting of a running, 24×7 news channel. We have also changed a whole lot of our programs and the general look & feel of the channel. I am confident that the new looks would appeal to our viewers and make our brand presence much wider. We have used our own channel to promote awareness. What else could be better than the 5 million reach that we have got?. We have taken outdoor as support media.”

  • CK Harish Kumar joins Public TV as VP sales & marketing

    CK Harish Kumar joins Public TV as VP sales & marketing

    MUMBAI: CK Harish Kumar has been appointed as VP sales and marketing at Writemen Media‘s Kannada channel Public TV. Kumar moves from Suvarna News, where he was associate VP.

    He will report in to Writeman Media CMD HR Ranganath.

    Kumar‘s role at the channel will include developing and strengthening the offerings and help in the expansion of new projects.

    In an official communiqué released by the channel, Ranganath said, “Harish comes with a significant experience in developing news channels and his understanding of television is quite phenomenal. We believe his understanding of the regional and national market will help the channel.”

    Kumar started his marketing career in 1993 with Get Yellow Pages and in 1999, joined ABP as group executive. Three years later he shifted to an advertising media solutions agency Hitakshi Media as business manager for six months. Later, after a stint of six months at AJS India, he then joined the Deccan Herald in 2003 as deputy general manager where he worked till he joined Suvarna News in 2010.

  • Asianet launches Kannada news channel ‘Suvarna News’

    Asianet launches Kannada news channel ‘Suvarna News’

    BANGALORE: Asianet Communications Ltd (ACL) today launched Suvarna News, a 24-hour Kannada news channel.

    ACL is planning to launch its Telugu general entertainment channel (GEC) Sitara Television in April while the Marathi and Tamil GECs will be up within six months, says Suvarna COO K Sanjay Prabhu.

    With the launch of Suvarna News, Asianet Television Network (ATN) will have five operational channels – three Malayalam and two Kannada. Asianet also has two radio channels that were launched a couple of months ago.

    Suvarna News is the third Kannada news channel to be launched in the state, the other two being the Sun group’s Udaya Verthegalu and TV9 Karnataka. “In Karnataka, people just love to watch the news – be it local, national or international,” says Prabhu.

    ACL expects to garner ad revenues of Rs 300 million each from Suvarna’s GEC and the news channel in the next fiscal. Pundits predict the size of the Kannada television ad market to reach Rs 2 billion in FY’09. Hence, the Suvarna bouquet has ambitious plans of garnering 30 per cent of the market.

    Prabhu revealed that around Rs 1.1 billion have been invested in the two Kannada channels so far. He is confident that the Suvrana GEC operations will turn profitable in the next fiscal, and those of Suvarna News a year after.

    Among the major advertisers already on board on Suvarna News are HUL and the Confident group. The latter is the title sponsor of Suvarna GEC’s popular five-day-a-week talent hunt show Confident Star Singer. “We have a package deal with the Confident group,” said Prabhu, who admits that there could be a number of cross deals of a similar nature with other advertisers.

    ATN is having talks with P&G, reveal company sources.

    Following the launch of the news channel, the news portion on the GEC has undergone changes. Earlier, Suvarana used to broadcast four news bulletins and five minutes of news shorts every hour. This has been brought down to just two news bulletins per day.

    Suvarna News will focus in the 15-45 age group in Karnataka. The channel has nine full-fledged bureaus with studios in the state and another bureau in Delhi. It also has 30 stringers for news and content gathering.

    The channel has four DSNG (Digital Satellite News Gathering) and three MB vans. News will also be obtained through ANI and Reuters. “A policy decision has to be taken as yet whether we will go in for syndication with other news channels in other states, or whether we should have our setup,” says Suvarana News editor Shiddarth Bhatt who worked with the Indian Express group on its political desk for 17 years before joining the GEC Suvarana as its news editor about a year ago.

    “Some news channels depend on airing crime, sleaze and cinema to get the eyeballs. Our focus will be on politics and corruption. It will be investigative journalism that will help unearth scams and other political wrongdoings,” informs Bhatt.