News Broadcasting
Zee Music gets jiggy with ‘Aaja Naachle’
MUMBAI: ‘Get wet and down right funky’ that’s Zee Music’s idea of fun. Starting this Sunday, Zee’s music channel will host music concerts at Water Kingdom, Essel World, in Mumbai.
To be held for eight weeks, the concerts will be aired on the channel from 24 April as one and half hour specials.
Building up the brand line ‘Sound of India’, each show has a region specific theme. Jumpstarting with the Marathi pop music gang that includes the likes of Vaishali Samant, Shaswati, Avdoot Gupte, it will also feature bands including Bombay Viking.
With the Indo-Pak friendship getting a lot of hype at the Zee Cine Awards, the channel has flown a few senior Pakistani artistes to India for a concert.
“We aim to give a platform for budding music talents in India. So, each of the show will feature two or three senior artists who will ready the stage for a few talented new comers. We have specially hosted the events at Water Kingdom, since we wanted to give something special to our Water Kingdom patrons as it is the sixth anniversary of the theme water park, ” said Zee Cinema and Zee Music business head Yogesh Radhakrishnan.
Speaking about the special invitees of the event, the Pakistani artists, Radhakrishnan said, “Artists from Pakistan have been talking about performing in India for quite some time now. So when we were planning the event, we decided to go for them”
While the sister concern etc has built up quite a loyal fan following with similar kind of concert programmingNaach meri jaan, Zee Music attempts to build interactivity. The channel also hopes to build up its audience base. “During the airing of etc’s live shows, we realised that the events were giving us high ratings. So we decided to do something similar for Zee Music. Being a music channel, interactivity is something that you need to build up on,” Radhakrishnan said.
The channel will also be organising few local contests. Radhakrishnan further informed that many interactive shows and programming initiatives are in the pipeline.
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.
