News Broadcasting
Mirror Now & govt working together on public issues without yelling, says Faye D’souza
MUMBAI: Mirror Now, one of the newest English channels, has not done any marketing since its launch around six months ago. Covering all Indian cities, Mirror Now claims to have got a good response especially from Bangalore and Chennai.
The channel and the government are working together on public issues. “The central, Maharashtra and Karnataka government are working closely with us on public issues,” says Mirror Now executive editor Faye D’Souza.
“Our strongest markets are — Mumbai, Chennai and Bangalore. And, we have beaten our internal target a lot faster — the target set for a year has already been completed.” “We don’t yell, but ask tough questions politely,” she asserted.
Speaking to Indiantelevision.com, she said, “We are introducing shows and working on new concepts. We are working on morning primetime from 7-10am, early evening prime time 5:30pm onwards. Our disruptive shows will be on our late prime time shows — from 11pm -1am.”
Talking about content, D’Souza added, “Stories are coming from across India. We get 25-30 calls/hour during our prime time shows.” To a question she said, “Despite being a small team of 25, our content speaks louder than marketing, the ratio being 95:5.”
About measuring success, the executive editor says, “I look at two yardsticks, first one is numbers from the BARC India point of view, and secondly what type of response you are getting from the social media.”
On the marketing front, she said: “We didn’t launch it on a large platform, having marketing campaign across the country even as, being a Times group channel, everything was available to us.”
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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.
