News Broadcasting
Government grants uplinking permission to Jagran’s news channel – Channel 7
NEW DELHI: The Jagran media group today announced that the government has given permission to uplink a proposed news channel from India. The channel, named Channel 7, will be managed and distributed by Jagran TV Pvt Limited.
“The foundation idea of this channel is innovation and the dire need to be different. As a step in that direction, we decided to go along with the name Channel 7,” Jagran TV director Siddhartha Gupta said in a statement issued
today.
Channel 7 will be a free-to-air 24-hour news channel in Hindi and is getting ready for a launch in March 2005. This new 24-hour Hindi news channel is expected to be on air by mid-March.
Officials claim that Channel 7 aims to reach out to viewers through a rich array of innovative, non-fiction, participative, informative and entertaining programmes. The emphasis will be to “interpret news as it impacts audiences” presented in a format, which is both novel and contemporary in its approach and treatment.
Equipped with a strong technical and editorial team under the leadership of former NDTV and Sahara man Arup Ghosh as director-news, the channel’s present manpower strength is over 300 personnel.
Yesterday, a Press Trust of India (PTI) report had quoted Jagran Prakashan Ltd managing editor Mahendra Mohan Gupta as saying that the group plans to make Rs 400-500 million from advertising sales in the first year of operation.
Positioned as a “News Plus” channel, Channel 7 will cover positive aspect of news from India. The look and feel is being designed by Bruce Dunlop & Associates from Australia, while its news-room and sets are being designed by Bollywood’s Nitin Desai, the report said, quoting Gupta.
The company, which has invested about Rs 600 million in the TV venture, hopes to offload about 20 per cent of its stake through an IPO route. “We are considering all avenues. There are talks going on with both domestic as well as foreign investors. IPO route is also one of options we have,” the PTI report had quoted Gupta saying.
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.
