News Broadcasting
TV Today gains 4 per cent as RK Damani ups stake to 6.4 per cent
BENGALURU: He is a quiet and a patient ‘Man with the Midas touch,’ who is touted as Indian stock market whiz Rakesh Jhunjunwalla’s guru. Today, Radhakishan Damani, or RK Damani, increased his stake in TV Today Network Limited with an investment of Rs 25.48 crore for 13 lakh shares of face value of Rs 5 each, to 6.4 per cent from 4.22 per cent. Damani’s average purchase price at that rate works out to Rs 196 per share.
The company’s share closed 4.01 per cent higher at Rs 217.70 from an opening of Rs 210 today on the BSE. The High/Low values of the script for the day were Rs 220.45/208.30. The share had closed at Rs 209.30 yesterday.TV Today’s script saw a turnover of Rs 6.02 crore at a weighted average price of Rs 215.42 per share on the BSE. Its 52 week High/Low on the BSE was Rs259/Rs 96.05.
On the NSE, at close today, the script had gained 3.64 per cent (Rs 7.65) on yesterday’s closing price of Rs 209.95 to close at Rs 217.60 per share. The script opened on the NSE at Rs 210, reached a high of Rs 220.40 and a low of Rs 208.05 during the course of the day. About 9.48 lakh shares valued at Rs 20.4718 crore were traided on the NSE today. The 52 week high of the share was Rs 259.35 on 7 November 2014 and the 52 week low was Rs 95.75 on 30 January 2014 on the NSE.
Earlier, on 27 August 2014 Derive Investments, a fund run by RK Damani and Gopikishan Damani had bought 11.7 lakh shares representing 1.96 per cent stake in TV Today Network for Rs 21 crore. The price of TV Today then rose 6 per cent to Rs 217 on the NSE. Before that, since September 2013, RK Damani had held a 1.5 per cent stake in the TV broadcaster.
TV Today reported a 58.1 per cent y-o-y increase in production costs coupled with a 40.4 per cent increment in employee benefit expense (EBE) and a 36.6 per cent rise in other expense numbers which pared its PAT to register a 2.9 per cent increment in Q2-2015. The company reported a y-o-y growth of 21.8 per cent in its Total Income from Operations (TIO) in Q2-2015 at Rs 111.69 crore versus the Rs 91.71 crore in Q2-2014, but TIO registered a 18.5 per cent decline when compared to the Rs 137.01 crore for Q1-2015. Higher TIO in Q1-2015 can be attributed to the national elections that saw revenues of most news channels rise during the first quarter of FY-2015.
As mentioned above, the company’s PAT at Rs 13.21 crore (11.8 per cent of TIO) was 2.9 per cent more than the Rs 12.83 crore (25 per cent of TIO), but was almost a third (40.3 percent of) the Rs 32.79 (23.9 per cent of TIO) crore in Q1-2015.
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.
