News Broadcasting
The French want more ethnic diversity on TV
MUMBAI: In a poll taken following the recent ethnic riots throughout France, most of the French public say that they would like to see greater ethnic diversity on television.
The poll was released a few days ago just as French President Jacques Chirac was preparing to meet with television executives.Media reports indicate that Chirac and network executives will discuss showing content that better reflect the country’s racial composition.
According to the survey, which was conducted by the CSA research firm for the daily newspaper Le Parisien 79 per cent of respondents agreed with Chirac’s statement stating “The media must better reflect the French reality of today. 18 per cent disagreed and three per cent expressed no opinion. The polled questioned 957 people.
France, with a larger proportion of non-European minorities than any of its neighbors, has been in denial of the increasingly multiethnic makeup of its society for decades. The disparity between the country’s monochromatic image of itself and the multicolored reality frustrates young citizens from non-European immigrant backgrounds and has added to their sense of alienation.
This was expressed most graphically in the arson that swept the country for nearly three weeks.Observers have attributed the civil unrest to disaffected youths of North and West African origin, who have difficulty finding employment and fitting into French society.
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.
