News Broadcasting
NaiDunia, Pocha buy NewsX
MUMBAI: The first of the mergers and acquisitions hit the media world just 9 days into the new year. INX News Pvt Ltd, part of the Peter Mukerjea, Indrani Mukerjea- owned INX Group, has been hawked off to Indi Media, a newly formed joint venture between NaiDunia promoter and CEO Vinay Chhajlani and former Businessworld editor Jehangir S Pocha. INX News runs the English language channel NewsX.
Details of the transaction were not available, but Chhajlani confirmed that the deal had indeed taken place. Pocha too confirmed that Indi Media had bought out the entire holding of the existing investors in INX News. He added that he will be taking on a strong editorial role in the company.
The employees of NewsX will continue to hold eight per cent ESOPs, parcelled out to them by the founder-promoters.
Exiting from the TV news venture a little before a year of existence, INX Media founder and CEO Indrani Mukerjea’s pursuit was to create NewsX as a premier English news channel brand. While the promoters held 66 per cent in the news company, INX Media, supported by a clutch of private equity firms, had 26 per cent.
INX News ran into rough weather pretty early with editor-in-chief Vir Sanghvi and his core team leaving the set-up amid controversial circumstances even before the launch of the channel.
INX Media still runs a Hindi general entertainment channel 9X and a Bollywood music channel 9XM. The company is in talks to raise funds and has stopped airing fresh content on 9X.
Chhajlani runs a Hindi newspaper with a footprint in Madhya Pradesh and has also created web and new media assets. TV broadcasting was a missing piece in his media plan.
“We took over two months to value NewsX and found it a good pick. The English news space is not so cluttered and we were drawn in by the investments INX News had made into technology and infrastructure,” Chhajlani says.
INX News had been talking to Rajeev Chandrasekhar’s Jupiter Capital and Dainik Bhaskar promoters, but could not come to an agreement on the price.
Analysts closely tracking the sector say that Indi Media would not have paid much above the English news channel’s set-up cost. Both Indrani and Peter could not be contacted to obtain their comments on the acquisition price.
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.
