News Broadcasting
TV18 plans weekly biz magazine
NEW DELHI: Continuing to report good financial performance, the publicly traded Television Eighteen Ltd (TV 18), the majority stakeholder in the CNBC TV18 business news channel venture, is now planning to come out with a weekly business magazine.
According to sources in the capital market, where information regarding listed companies doesn’t remain a secret for long, a headhunting firm has already been mandated to identify potential people for the editorial team for the proposed business weekly.
A source told indiantelevision.com today morning, With Business India weakening as a magazine, BusinessWorld (from the ABP Group that is also a majority partner in the Star News venture) is the only business weekly at present in India. This scenario makes it ideal for another business magazine to enter the Indian market, which is what TV 18 is doing.
The likes of Business Today, from The Indian Today Group, are fortnightly products.
With cash flow not much of a problem for TV 18, the business weekly venture may cost it in the region of Rs 180- Rs 220 million, provided the company leverages its existing infrastructure (like bureau space in different cities) adequately.
The positioning of the proposed business weekly has not yet been decided , the sources said. With the financial world growing , the market can take in another magazine, but the positioning has to be made right. The TV 18 magazine can be modeled on BusinessWeek or even The Asian Wall Street Journal.
It is learnt that though the work on the magazine and some other expansion plans (a Hindi business news channel and hopping on to a DTH platform abroad) have started, the magazine, the first new venture scheduled to be off the block, would still take between three to four months time to become a reality.
The TV 18 scrip was trading today on the Bombay Stock Exchange at Rs 190.70 at 11.34 am, down 0.13 per cent from the previous closing rate of Rs 190.95. On the National Stock Exchange, the scrip was being quoted at Rs 190.65 at 11.45 am, down from the previous closing rate of Rs 191.20.
As part of the expansion plans, CNBC TV 18 is opening four more bureaus, including Kolkata, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad. The first, however, is technically being re-established as the regular bureau in Kolkata had been disbanded over an year back as part of a cost cutting exercise.
Meanwhile, negotiations are on to take an international feed of the CNBC TV 18 channel to markets like the Middle East, the UK and the US on direct-to-home platform. This plan too would take between six to eight months time.
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.
