News Broadcasting
Sky News gets 15-year commitment from Disney in takeover battle
MUMBAI: Disney has refrained from selling Sky News without the U.K government’s permission and offered British authorities a commitment to operate Sky News for 15 years. For its part, 21st Century Fox has offered new commitments in an attempt to get its $15 billion bid for Sky over the finish line, including a promise to fund Sky News for 15 years, five more than it had previously offered.
British culture secretary Matt Hancock said, “In my view, these revised undertakings [commitments] meet the criteria that I set out to the House [of Commons] on 5 June and will help to ensure that Sky News remains financially viable over the long term; is able to operate as a major U.K.-based news provider; and is able to take its editorial decisions independently, free from any potential outside influence”,in a statement.
Under the proposed plans, Sky News would receive guaranteed funding of £100 million ($132 million) a year.
The British government set out its agreement on Tuesday with Disney and 21st Century Fox over Sky, if Fox’s bid to take over Sky succeeds. The agreement focuses on how Sky plans to divest Sky News, and the assurances necessary for the news channel’s long-term viability and editorial independence.
Fox, which is already Sky’s biggest shareholder with a 39.1 per cent stake, first tabled a proposal in December 2016 to buy the remainder of the broadcaster for £11.7bn in a deal valuing the whole of Sky at £18.5bn.
Fox had already agreed to meet the British competition watchdog’s proposed remedies by the time Hancock spoke to Parliament earlier this month and made offloading Sky News a condition to the Fox bid gaining approval.
Hancock has now opened a consultation. That ends on July 4 and at that point he is expected to make a final decision.
Opposition to the Fox bid remains fierce in the U.K. Lobby group Avaaz has been a vocal opponent and was in the High Court in London on Tuesday seeking to persuade a judge that media regulator Ofcom’s June 2017 decision that Fox and the Murdoch family would be fit and proper owners of all of Sky was flawed.
News Broadcasting
Rajesh Sundaram joins NDTV Profit as senior editor, assignment
The 32-year newsroom veteran has launched channels on three continents and covered everything from 9/11 to South African television
MUMBAI: NDTV Profit has bolstered its newsroom with a hire who has done rather more than most. Rajesh Sundaram, a journalist with over three decades of editorial, managerial and consultative experience across India and international markets, joins as senior editor, assignment, tasked with sharpening the network’s newsgathering and real-time response.
Sundaram’s career reads like a tour of Indian media’s most formative moments. He began at Businessworld in 1994, moved to Zee News as bureau chief across Mumbai and Chennai, then joined NDTV in 2002 as part of its political bureau during a particularly febrile period in Indian politics. A stint as India correspondent for Al Jazeera International followed, where he covered key geopolitical developments and got his first serious taste of the global newsroom.
What sets Sundaram apart, however, is his serial channel-launching habit. At NewsX, he helped get the operation off the ground. At Headlines Today, part of the India Today Group, he served as editor. At News Nation, he helped launch the Hindi news channel and its digital ecosystem. He then crossed continents to lead the launch of ANN7 in South Africa as editor-in-chief, overseeing both television and digital. Back in India, he launched Tamil news channels News7 Tamil and Cauvery News, and later served as principal consultant for the launch of Marathi channel Lokshahi. Most recently, he helped build and lead the Press Trust of India’s video service and content studio, before stints consulting for Business Today and The Himalayan Times.
Rahul Kanwal, chief executive and editor-in-chief of NDTV, left little doubt about what Sundaram is expected to deliver. “The assignment desk is where a newsroom’s intent becomes action,” he said. “Rajesh brings a rare combination of field experience and leadership in building news operations at scale.”
Sundaram has reported from across India and the world, covering elections, civil conflicts, the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks and the 2008 US presidential election.
At NDTV Profit, he will lead the assignment desk, driving editorial coordination and real-time response across markets and breaking developments. For a business news network sharpening its focus on speed and multi-platform delivery, it has hired a man who has built newsrooms from scratch on three continents. The assignment desk is in good hands.
