News Broadcasting
Zee Media gets permission for 4 regional news channels
MUMBAI: After a long tenure of being strict in awarding channel licenses, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) has finally become lenient. In the month of September, eight new channels received licenses while none saw their licenses cancelled as on 30 September 2018.
Out of the eight channels, four channels were of Zee Media Corporation Ltd (ZMCL). All the four permissions are for news channel named 1 Chennai (Tamil, English), 1 Mumbai (Marathi, English), 1 Kolkata (Bengali, English) and 1 Delhi (Hindi, English). The permission was given on 11 September 2018 for both uplinking and downlinking of the four channels.
On the other hand, Disney Broadcasting India got the permissions for a non-news channel UTV HD (English) for both uplinking and downlinking on 14 September 2018.
Vedic Broadcasting has got permission for launching three new channels named Aastha Tamil, Aastha Telugu and Aastha Kannada on 26 September 2018.
The 14 licenses which were cancelled earlier by MIB due to security denial by Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) are still now under stay order from the court.
After cancelling permission to 247 channels, the number of private satellite TV channels having valid permission in India stands at 869 as on 30 September 2018. 483 channels are non-news channels and the remaining 386 are news channels.
Of the 868 permitted private satellite channels, TV channels permitted for uplinking from India and also to downlink into India are 769 among which 365 are news channels and 404 are non-news channels. 11 non-news channels and five news channels are permitted for uplinking from India but not downlink into the country. 84 TV channels are uplinked from abroad which only have downlinking permission in India. This category includes 15 news and 69 non-news channels.
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.
