News Broadcasting
Pressure on Prasar Bharati to reach deal with Ten Sports for FIFA World Cup telecast
To telecast or not to telecast (World cup soccer matches) is the question that is haunting Prasar Bharati and it is still attempting to salvage an almost a dead deal.
“Talks are still on with Ten Sports for telecast of the World Cup matches,” a senior official of Prasar Bharati told indiantelevision.com on Tuesday, pointing out that the national broadcaster is faced with a strange dilemma of trying to balance economics and its role as a public service broadcaster.
“We are trying to see whether we can do something with the opening match and then the semi-final and final games of the soccer World Cup,” the official said, adding that taking all the matches on a six-hour delayed telecast basis would not be prudent.
Since the soccer matches, if telecast on DD, would be under the sponsored category, Ten Sports would have to pay a certain amount of telecast fee to Prasar Bharati and, in return, will get a certain amount of free-commercial time for hawking on every 30-minute basis.
Admitting that Doordarshan is under “severe pressure from viewers and policy-makers alike,” the official said: “We are sitting on the horns of dilemma. If we decide to telecast the soccer matches then it would have to be on a delayed basis of at least six hours. If we go ahead and do it, then viewers will not get anything extra as in six hours time results of matches would have already been known in this age of information superhighway, even if the matches have not already been seen on Ten Sports.”
The official further pointed out that if DD decides to give the soccer World Cup a complete go-by since Ten Sports has the exclusive telecast rights for the Indian region, it was sure to attract lot of flak from politicians and the public.
DD also does not see much revenue flowing in from the delayed telecast of the soccer matches.
Prasar Bharati, overseeing the functioning of Doordarshan and All India Radio and one of the biggest broadcasters in the world, is smarting under the fact that it cannot telecast live the World Cup matches as Ten Sports has with it exclusive satellite and terrestrial rights and had written to DD earlier that the pubcaster would not be permitted to air the soccer games live
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.
