News Broadcasting
MCCS’ Bengali channel to be co-branded; looking for April-May launch
MUMBAI: The Bengali new year, 15 April, has good news for, who else but, Bengalis. A proposed Bengali channel from the ABP Group-Rupert Murdoch combine is on its way, scheduled to be put on air late April or early May, while plans for foraying into select other Indian languages, including English, are being spruced up.
The 24-hour Bengali news channel will also be co-branded. This lays to rest speculations on the channel not carrying the Star brand name.
“We are expecting the formalities to be completed very soon, including getting an uplink permission from India. After that happens, it will be just a matter of time before we put the Bengali channel on air. Internally, we are ready,” Media Content & Communications Services India Pvt. Ltd (MCCS) CEO Uday Shankar told Indiantelevision in an interview.
MCCS, a 74:26 per cent joint venture between the Aveek Sarkar-controlled Kolkata-based ABP Group and Murdoch-promoted Star Group, manages Star News channel. It has ambitions of creating a bouquet of select other Indian language-specific news channels.
Dwelling on the company’s expansion plans, Shankar said that the company has drawn up plans to consolidate its position with Star News even while tapping regional language markets with channels that would have a “national outlook.”
“We are in the process of evaluating what should be the next move after the Bengali channel is put on air. But we certainly have lined up several activities for this year,” he added, hinting that MCCS is investing afresh in technology, human resources and, may be, even in distribution activities.
Meanwhile, trusted Sarkar aide, Suman Chattopadhyay, will be the executive editor for the proposed Bengali channel, which is being kept in the unencrypted free-to-air mode. “The present regulatory set-up does not make sense for us to go pay and get inadequate subscription revenue,” Shankar explained.
BBC’s design arm BBC Broadcast Design, which was instrumental in providing a new look for Star News in February, will be responsible for the graphics and on-air look of the Bengali channel too.
On the programming front, the proposed channel will have a blend of programming that is aimed at attracting Bengali speaking audiences nationally. However, due focus on local (West Bengal-specific) news too would be given as MCCS would like to capitialise on the ABP Group strong presence in eastern India.
The Kolkata-based company publishes The Telegraph in English and the widely circulated Bengali newspaper Ananda Bazar Patrika, both of whom have the ambition to be national dailies.
News Broadcasting
CNN-News18 to air live counting day coverage for five state election results on May 4
The channel is rolling out its biggest election coverage machinery yet for results day on 4th May
NOIDA: The votes have been cast. Now comes the reckoning. CNN-News18 is pulling out all the stops for results day on 4th May, when counting begins across five battleground states — West Bengal, Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and the Union Territory of Puducherry — in what promises to be one of the most closely watched electoral verdicts in recent memory.
The channel’s coverage, titled Battle for the States: The Verdict, kicks off at 7am and runs through the day across linear TV, connected television and YouTube. It is the culmination of CNN-News18’s multi-format editorial initiative, Battle for the States, which has tracked the polls from the beginning under the theme Road to Power.
At the operational heart of the coverage will be the Live Results Hub, the channel’s central command centre built to collate, verify and process real-time data flowing in from reporters stationed at counting centres across constituencies. The hub combines newsroom intelligence, analytics and on-the-ground reporting to deliver what the channel promises will be the fastest and most accurate results coverage in English news.
Leading the on-air charge will be primetime anchors Rahul Shivshankar, Anand Narasimhan, Aman Sharma, Nabila Jamal and Shivani Gupta. They will be joined by a wide panel of commentators including author Chetan Bhagat; GVL Narasimha Rao, senior leader of the BJP; Smita Prakash, editor of ANI; activist Saira Shah Halim; political analyst Sumanth C Raman; Abhijit Iyer Mitra, senior fellow at IPCS; Amitabh Tiwari, founder of VoteVibe; columnist Abhijit Majumdar; Nalin Mehta, managing editor of MoneyControl; political analyst Tehseen Poonawalla; senior journalist Subir Bhaumik; and political analyst Manojit Mandal.
Shivshankar, who serves as editorial affairs director at CNN-News18, set out the stakes plainly. “Counting day is one of the most watched events in the electoral cycle, where speed and credibility are tested in real time,” he said. “Battle for the States: The Verdict is built on that promise, combining ground reporting, sharp analysis and cutting-edge election technology to give viewers the clearest and fastest route to the verdict. On May 4, CNN-News18 will once again be the nation’s most trusted channel to witness democracy in action.”
Smriti Mehra, chief executive of English and Business News at Network18, framed the coverage in broader terms. “Elections are defining national events, and audiences turn to brands they trust in moments that matter,” she said. “CNN-News18 has consistently led from the front in every election coverage, and this special programming reflects the scale of our ambition and editorial strength.”
The channel has form here. It claims to have been India’s most preferred English news destination for election results for the past 20 years, covering everything from the 2024 general elections to the Delhi, Maharashtra, Bihar and BMC polls on the back of what it calls an “Always First, Always Right” record. Five states, one day, and a nation waiting for answers. The clock starts at 7am on 4th May.
