News Broadcasting
Aaj Tak turns three
MUMBAI: For the TV Today group, the year-end was an occasion to celebrate twice over. The group’s flagship channel Aaj Tak turned three on 31 December 2003.
Aaj Tak, which is the first 24-hour Hindi news channel to uplink from India, has also been rated one of the most successful brand launches during the past seven years in the Brand Derby study conducted in September 2003.
Accolades have been coming in for the channel with good frequency. At the prestigious The Indian Telly Awards 2003, the channel walked away with the Television News Channel of the Year award while Prabhu Chawla of Aaj Tak picked up the TV News Anchor of the Year award.
According to a company release, Aaj Tak claims to have a viewership of approximately 27.3 million viewers, which the release states, has managed to create a unique platform for the advertisers to reach out to their target audiences.
The release also claims that Aaj Tak commands approximately 30.4 per cent of the total news market. The release further attributes this high channel share to the superior understanding of the audience preferences based on the management’s experience in the news business, editorial excellence, independent distribution and sales capabilities, customised state-of-the-art technology and a motivated team of well-qualified professionals.
Further, TV Today’s initial public offer (IPO) in its birth month in 2003 turned out to be a runaway success. The IPO that closed on 27 December was over subscribed 36.26 times at Rs 95 per share. The TV Today Network (TVTN) has mopped up a whopping Rs 49 billion as a result of over subscription without any support from foreign institutional investors who were not allowed to participate in the initial offer.
TVTN had offered 14.5 million shares through the book-building route. The issue constituted 25 per cent of the fully diluted post issue paid-up capital of the Company. The shares will list on the Bombay Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange of India this month. TVTN will be allocating 50 per cent of the issue to qualified institutional investors while 25 per cent of the offering will be allocated to retail investors and non-institutional investors each.
With the news channel space getting divided amongst more and more players, it remains to be seen if Aaj Tak will carry on walking the talk in its fourth year as well.
News Broadcasting
India Today Group debuts AI anchor ‘Sutra’ at AI Impact Summit 2026
Sutra aims to simplify live policy debates using sovereign AI models
NEW DELHI: India Today Group has unveiled Sutra, an AI-driven news anchor designed to deliver real-time, contextual reporting, marking the group’s latest push to integrate artificial intelligence into mainstream journalism.
The AI anchor was introduced at the India AI Impact Summit 2026 in New Delhi and developed in collaboration with BharatGen, with the initiative showcased by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.
India Today Group said Sutra is built to navigate complex policy discussions and fast-moving developments by synthesising information into concise, accessible insights, aimed at narrowing the gap between high-level debates and public understanding. The AI anchor was used to surface live takeaways from key sessions at the summit.
India Today Group chief AI officer Nilanjan Das, said the project was focused on clarity and accessibility without diluting editorial rigour. He added that working with BharatGen aligned the group’s AI ambitions with India’s broader push towards sovereign technology capabilities.
BharatGen CEO Rishi Bal, said the partnership reflected a shift from basic automation towards deeper contextual intelligence in media. He emphasised the importance of indigenous, multimodal AI models capable of understanding Indian languages, regional dialects and cultural nuance, particularly as AI-driven news formats gain traction.
The launch positions India Today Group among the first major Indian media houses to deploy an AI anchor backed by home-grown technology, underscoring a growing convergence between journalism, public policy and sovereign AI infrastructure.
