News Broadcasting
Anti-CAS camp in BJP meets Advani; I&B seeks law ministry advice
NEW DELHI: The chorus against conditional access system (CAS) has reached the office of deputy prime minister LK Advani. On the pro-CAS side, the information and broadcasting ministry has reportedly sought the advice of the law ministry on whether “errant” pay channels can be reined in through some legislative measures in case they fail to declare their individual pricing for a post-CAS regime.
According to a senior government official, nothing concrete on CAS can be said at the moment and the government is still hoping that broadcasters would fall in line and declare the prices of the pay channels before 14 July.
Though the government is said to be studying various options, it is becoming increasingly clear that rationing or regulating the quantum of ads carried by pay channels through a legislation may prove a tricky option.
The government official also said that at this juncture government intervention is not foreseen if the broadcasters want to have variable pricing through dual illumination or some other such mechanism.
“In a way variable pricing already exists as certain sections of Delhi, especially the far flung places, pay a lower monthly cable bill than in upmarket areas like South Delhi,” the official said.
But the broadcasting lobby is also not giving up. Today additional secretary in the information and broadcasting ministry Vijay Singh had Discovery India country head Deepak Shourie and ESPN India’s outgoing country head Manu Sawhney paying him a visit.
However, Shourie said they came to “discuss other things” than CAS with the bureaucrat.
Meanwhile, former chief minister of Delhi and a senior Bharatiya Janata Party member Madan Lal Khurana, along with Pramod Mahajan and others, is understood to have called on Advani to request him to see that implementation of CAS is deferred, at least in Delhi.
Though details of the meeting were not known till the time of writing this report, it is expected that Khurana and company petitioned for the delaying of CAS, particularly with state elections scheduled to be held in five states, including Delhi, by October-November.
Khurana’s stand is that CAS smells as foul as rotten onions. According to political folklore, in the last elections held in Delhi, the BJP lost power to the Congress because there was a severe shortage of onions and the public sentiment is said to have gone against the then ruling party.
News Broadcasting
Times Network to air JVC Exit Poll across 5 regions on April 29
Four-hour broadcast spans states and Puducherry with data-led analysis
MUMBAI: Times Network is set to roll out what it calls one of its most expansive election programming efforts yet, culminating in the JVC Exit Poll on 29 April, with a multi-hour broadcast spanning key poll-bound regions.
The exit poll will air across Times Now and Times Now Navbharat, beginning at 5pm and 4pm respectively. Co-powered by Vedanta and Jindal Stainless, the programming aims to combine on-ground reportage with data-driven projections across West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Assam and Puducherry.
The network has deployed over 50 journalists across these regions, gathering voter sentiment and local insights in the run-up to polling. The effort builds on its ongoing election formats such as Election Yatra and Election Premier League, which have tracked campaign narratives and community-level issues.
In parallel, Times Now Navbharat has focused on constituency-level reporting in West Bengal through its Jan Gan ka Mann series, capturing voter opinions across diverse segments.
The coverage has also featured interviews with prominent political leaders. Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan and Congress leaders Ramesh Chennithala and V D Satheesan have appeared on the network’s election specials. From Tamil Nadu, voices including deputy chief minister Udhayanidhi Stalin, DMK MP Dayanidhi Maran, BJP leader K Annamalai and NTK’s Seeman have also featured in discussions.
On the day of the exit poll, the network’s primetime anchors, including Navika Kumar, Zakka Jacob and Sumit Awasthi, will lead the coverage. They will be joined by a panel of political analysts, psephologists and senior journalists offering real-time insights and interpretation of trends.
The programming will integrate grassroots reportage with analytics from the JVC Exit Poll, aiming to give viewers an early sense of electoral outcomes ahead of the official results on 4 May.
With its combined English and Hindi broadcast reach, Times Network is positioning this effort as a comprehensive look at voter sentiment, blending field reporting, data and debate to decode what could lie ahead when the final mandate is revealed.
