News Broadcasting
Chirac wants a French global news channel
MUMBAI: Joining the bandwagon of international news channels like CNN, BBC World will be a French news channel.
According to a report in The Telegraph (France), President Jacques Chirac has demanded that the blueprint for the news service – already nicknamed “CNN a la Francaise” – be ready by the end of this month as he has become increasingly irritated by the “Anglo-Saxon” view of global events being beamed into millions of homes and hotel rooms around the world.
He wants to challenge America’s domination of international affairs by extending French language and influence, the report adds.
“We’ve been concerned for a long time that the BBC and CNN are reporting on events from a British or American perspective and in English,” a Government official is quoted as having said in the report. “As recent events have shown, France may see things differently and we feel it is important that we get our message across,” he added.
A Reuters report , however states that the French channel would be a round-the-clock, global TV news channel modelled on US and British news channels like CNN and BBC World. it further quotes the French president as saying, “This is a legitimate aspiration for our country and I would like to see it happen.Moreover France needed to be more present in the battle of pictures,through TV sets across the globe.”
France’s parliament had set up a committee in December 2002 to study how such a TV operation could be financed and operated. The committee is expected to publish its conclusions by June 2003.
“This would be something completely different. The target audience would be foreigners, rather than French expatriates, the idea being to offer a different viewpoint to existing news media like CNN,” one parliamentarian involved is quoted as having said in the Reuters report.
France has a domestic cable news channel, LCI, owned by commercial television group TF1, which broadcasts news bulletins, current affairs programmes and interviews. However, it has limited international reach.
Apart from CNN and BBC world, another popular 24-hour international channel in Europe is Euronews, whose main shareholders are Britain’s ITN and public broadcasters in France, Spain, Italy and Russia. Euronews is broadcast in seven languages and can be seen in Canada, the Middle East, eastern Europe and Russia.
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.
