News Broadcasting
Viacom lowers forecast for full-year profit
NEW YORK: This is bad news for US networks who strongly rely on local advertising as a source of revenue. Media conglomerate Viacom has decided to reduce its full-year profit and revenue forecast because local advertising sales have not been picking up as rapidly as had been expected.
The alert is being seen as a signal that the US economy might not be rebounding as rapidly as the stock markets have anticipated. Reports indicate that Viacom gets around half its revenue from businesses that rely on advertising sales.
Last year, it had $24.6 billion in revenue. A Herald Tribune report estimates that about $5.5 billion, or 22 per cent of that total, came from local advertising sales. Worsening the situation is the fact that the company generated nearly 46 per cent of its revenue from advertising in the first half of this year.
Viacom expects revenue and profit growth to be in the mid- to high-single digits. The announcement comes just two months after the company’s CEO Sumner Redstone raised his projections for this year to high single-digit growth in revenue and double-digit growth in operating income.
However it is expected that 2004 will be fairly healthy for advertising, with the Athens Olympics and the presidential elections. At this time, spending goes disproportionately to local radio and television, reports indicate.
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.
