News Broadcasting
ETV channels to go pay, price at Rs 10
MUMBAI: Eenadu Television is taking its Bengali general entertainment channel pay with effect from 1 February. The other channels in the network will also go pay in a phased manner.
ETV Bangla will be priced at Rs 10 a month per subscriber. “Our Bengali channel is going pay from 1 February. The other channels in the network will follow suit,” a senior ETV executive confirms.
ETV Kannada and ETV Marathi are likely to go pay by March. All the ETV channels will be priced similarly at Rs 10.
In the Cas (conditional access system) areas of Mumbai and Kolkata, ETV has not yet decided whether it should stay free-to-air (FTA). “We haven’t taken a call yet whether ETV Bangla will be FTA in the Cas notified areas of Kolkata. Similarly, we have to decide about ETV Marathi in the Cas region of Mumbai when we take the channel pay,” the executive said.
Last year ETV had taken its Telugu channels – ETV Telugu and ETV2 – pay and priced it together at Rs 10. ETV has a bouquet of 12 regional channels including ETV Oriya, Gujarati, Urdu, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh.
Private investment firm Blackstone Group recently announced it would pump in $ 275 million (approximately Rs 12.38 billion) to acquire a stake in Ushodaya Enterprises Limited (UEL), the holding company that manages Ramoji Rao’s media assets. UEL owns Eenadu, the third largest newspaper, and ETV, the fourth largest private television broadcasting network in the country.
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.
