News Broadcasting
Navin Kumar appointed interim CEO of Prasar Bharati
NEW DELHI: Doordarshan director-general Navin Kumar will be the interim CEO of Prasar Bharati till a selection panel zeroes down on a full time candidate for the post being vacated by KS Sarma.
Sarma served as the CEO of Prasar Bharati, which manages DD and All India Radio, from March 2002 to June 2006. Kumar’s appointment too would be a short one as the government official is slated to revert to his home cadre in August after a stint in New Delhi.
As Kumar will be functioning as the CEO of Prasar Bharati, senior-most deputy director-general, LD Mandloi, will be the acting DG of Doordarshan.
Interestingly, before Sarma took over the reins at Prasar Bharati, the then additional secretary in the I&B ministry, Anil Baijal, served as the acting CEO for about 18 months.Chief executive of the publicly funded Prasar Bharati is chosen by a panel headed by the Vice-President of India and comprising the chairman of the Press Council of India and a government nominee.
Sarma’s over four-year term had its ups and downs, but he is credited with successfully launching DD’s subscription-free DTH service DD Direct+, and steering Prasar Bharati’s annual revenues to over Rs 10 billion for the first time in FY06 ended March 2006.
It was also during Sarma’s tenure that DD News was relaunched and an in-house marketing team set up to market programmes aired on DD and AIR instead of outsourcing the activity, which, more often than not, ran into legal problems.
Though Sarma would not like to take much credit for it, but he is said to have successfully lobbied with the ministry to bring about changes in sports broadcasting, which resulted in the downlink law being formulated that makes it mandatory for private broadcasters to share feeds of listed events with the pubcaster.
News Broadcasting
News18 India to air Sabse Bada Dangal on 4 May counting day
Channel promises fastest results, live trends and analysis across five states.
MUMBAI: Ballots will do the talking and screens will do the shouting. As counting day approaches for high-stakes Assembly elections across West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Assam and Puducherry, News18 India is gearing up for an all-day broadcast of its flagship election show, Sabse Bada Dangal, on 4 May from 6 am onwards. The Hindi news channel plans to deliver continuous, real-time updates as votes are tallied, combining live counting data with on-ground reporting and studio analysis. With political fortunes set to shift through the day, the coverage will track every swing, surge and surprise as trends turn into results.
The broadcast will feature a mix of senior political leaders, analysts and experts, offering instant reactions and decoding the evolving electoral picture. Expect heated debates, quick takes and detailed breakdowns as the numbers settle across all five states.
For News18 India, counting day has long been a high-visibility moment. The network is banking on its reporting reach, editorial bandwidth and technology-driven coverage to stay ahead in what is often a fiercely competitive news cycle.
With multiple battlegrounds and shifting narratives, the day promises both drama and data in equal measure. And if all goes to plan, Sabse Bada Dangal will once again turn the counting of votes into prime-time spectacle.
