News Broadcasting
Sahara Samay VP Prabhat Dabral to oversee news bureaus
MUMBAI: Sahara Samay vice-president Prabhat Dabral, who has been managing the network’s national channel Sahara Samay Rashtriya, now has editorial functions added to his portfolio. Dabral will shoulder additional responsibilities in the network as head of all Sahara’s news bureaus.
According to a company source, the creation of a position of head of Sahara News Bureaus has been done mainly to oversee the operations of the news channels. The person will also function as a focal point to whom all individual channel heads will report.
Another change being instituted is that Rao Birendra Singh, who had been looking after Sahara Samay UP (the Uttar Pradesh-specific news channel) and Sahara Samay Rashtriya, will now only have Sahara Samay Rashtriya under his editorial charge.
Sahara India Media and Entertainment (SIME) head of media operations Sudhir Kumar will now have to decide who is to head Sahara Samay UP. According to company sources, the post will in all likelihood be filled by an internal appointee.
A point of note is that Sahara Samay Mumbai is not part of the new reporting structure.The Mumbai operation is looked after by Sahara Samay vice-president Rajiv Bajaj.
When queried as to why the Mumbai head does not have to report in to Dabral, it was pointed out that the Mumbai operations, including the channel’s uplinking, are taken care of in the city, whereas the other news channels are uplinked out of Noida on the outskirts of Delhi.
Dabral would also oversee the launch of Sahara Samay Gujarati and English for south India, which are in the pipeline. The two region-specific channels are targeted for a year-end launch.
Last month, SIME senior VP Ambikanand Sahay quit from the post suddenly. The management has yet not taken any decision as to who would take over from Sahay after his departure.
News Broadcasting
Times Network to air JVC Exit Poll across 5 regions on April 29
Four-hour broadcast spans states and Puducherry with data-led analysis
MUMBAI: Times Network is set to roll out what it calls one of its most expansive election programming efforts yet, culminating in the JVC Exit Poll on 29 April, with a multi-hour broadcast spanning key poll-bound regions.
The exit poll will air across Times Now and Times Now Navbharat, beginning at 5pm and 4pm respectively. Co-powered by Vedanta and Jindal Stainless, the programming aims to combine on-ground reportage with data-driven projections across West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Assam and Puducherry.
The network has deployed over 50 journalists across these regions, gathering voter sentiment and local insights in the run-up to polling. The effort builds on its ongoing election formats such as Election Yatra and Election Premier League, which have tracked campaign narratives and community-level issues.
In parallel, Times Now Navbharat has focused on constituency-level reporting in West Bengal through its Jan Gan ka Mann series, capturing voter opinions across diverse segments.
The coverage has also featured interviews with prominent political leaders. Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan and Congress leaders Ramesh Chennithala and V D Satheesan have appeared on the network’s election specials. From Tamil Nadu, voices including deputy chief minister Udhayanidhi Stalin, DMK MP Dayanidhi Maran, BJP leader K Annamalai and NTK’s Seeman have also featured in discussions.
On the day of the exit poll, the network’s primetime anchors, including Navika Kumar, Zakka Jacob and Sumit Awasthi, will lead the coverage. They will be joined by a panel of political analysts, psephologists and senior journalists offering real-time insights and interpretation of trends.
The programming will integrate grassroots reportage with analytics from the JVC Exit Poll, aiming to give viewers an early sense of electoral outcomes ahead of the official results on 4 May.
With its combined English and Hindi broadcast reach, Times Network is positioning this effort as a comprehensive look at voter sentiment, blending field reporting, data and debate to decode what could lie ahead when the final mandate is revealed.
