MxMIndia

Tag: NDTV 24×7

  • To boost morale for the 19th Asian Games

    Sony unites sports journalists in campaign for 2022 Asian Games

    By Our Staff

     

    Sony Sports Network unveils a campaign for the 2022 Asian Games. With an extraordinary lineup of luminaries, including esteemed personalities like Chief of Defence Staff, General Anil Chauhan, Sudha Murty, Amitabh Bachchan and Kapil Sharma, the campaign aims to ignite the nation’s fervour for this multisport extravaganza.

     

    The film also has a lineup of sports journalists from publications such as Dainik Jagran, Dainik Bhaskar, Rajasthan Patrika, The Telegraph, Deccan Chronicle, and regional newspapers including Dinakaran, Lokmat, Eenadu, Gujarat Samachar, Sandesh, and Asomya Pratidin. Additionally, it features RJs from popular radio channels like Radio City and Radio One, along with representatives from leading news channels Aaj Tak and NDTV 24X7.

     

    With ‘Iss Baar Sau Paar,’ Sony Sports Network aims to rally the entire nation, uniting millions of hearts, and minds, to stand beside our athletes as they strive for excellence and glory. This campaign is a resounding call to break barriers, inspire champions, and witness the remarkable journey of India’s sporting triumphs at the 2022 Asian Games.

     

  • The sources add that there have been fairly advanced levels discussions with some on the sale of Profit, but none finally ended in a deal

    Curtains for NDTV Profit. Biz programming to now feature on NDTV 24×7

    By A Correspondent

     

    So it’s curtains for NDTV Profit. New Delhi Television, which is listed with the stock exchanges, issued a communique saying: “NDTV has decided to transfer its business programming from Profit to regular business and finance segments on NDTV 24×7. This will mean suspending the current trading hours programming on Profit while Prime will continue as a channel.” According to information received, today (Friday, June 3) will be the last day when Profit will air the trading hours live.

     

    While the statement adds that “NDTV does not rule out reviving a business channel when the circumstances are appropriate”, sources say that it is indeed the end of the channel the way we see it today. The sources add that there have been fairly advanced levels discussions with some on the sale of Profit, but none finally ended in a deal.

     

    Meanwhile, Prime will continue as the primary focus will be on entertainment and infotainment, and advertiser-funded content.

     

    As for NDTV Profit, the going hasn’t been good for a while now. In fact the audience measurement numbers from BARC have seen the channel being a distant third in the pecking order in the 22+-year-males slice of urban and rural markets.

     

  • Newspapers have carried the story, social media has made the photographs go viral but news channels have remained completely patriotic, writes Ranjona Banerji

    Ranjona Banerji: Pakistan! Pakistan! Pakistan! Jharkhand? Where’s that?

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    The lynching of seven men accused of being kidnappers by an angry mob in Jharkhand has sent waves of shock and horror through India. Did I just say that? What a lie. Since the horrific story and the heart-rending images of a man’s blood-soaked hands begging for mercy went viral (they killed him anyway), what have our intrepid brave patriotic English news channels concentrated on?

     

    What a question. Obviously, cricketer Mohammed Kaif’s Twitter take down of a Pakistani after India won first round at the International Court of Justice over the death sentence of Kulbhushan Jadhav. Duh.

     

    Or perhaps, it was Pakistan in general or more particularly, get a whole lot of former generals and wannabe generals together and encourage them to carry out a proxy screaming match on television.

     

    But the Jharkhand lynching? Tut tut. How anti-national to expect news channels to show India in a bad light, when they put up those where’s-the-war-with-Pakistan dramas, night after night.

     

    Newspapers have carried the story, social media has made the photographs go viral but news channels have remained completely patriotic.

     

    Luckily Nidhi Razdan picked up the subject on mob violence getting out of hand in India on NDTV’s Left, Right and Centre on Monday night. She held her own against the RSS’s Dr Rakesh Sinha and Syed Jaffar Islam of the BJP, who either tried to blame the media for naming communities or going back to some incident in 1968 or, as usual, making sure that the prime minister must not be tainted by anything that happens in BJP-ruled states. The old Sangh Parivar chestnut of “India’s federal structure” was trotted out. Of course, this argument at its logical end, leads one to assume that a national spokesperson for the BJP has no control over the BJP in the states. Jai ho!

     

    Razdan did not buckle down to the two government spokespersons on her panel and to some extent the others – sociologist Shiv Vishwanathan, Congress member Sachin Pilot and columnist Sadanand Dhume (who has lately taken to criticising the BJP a bit, unlike his earlier stand) were allowed to speak.

     

    This show will undoubtedly bolster the impression of all Modi Bhakts that NDTV is anti-BJP. However, there was always Vikram Chandra on The Big Fight the other night who told us that the economy is doing wonderfully well under Modi ji and agreed with BJP spokesperson Nalin Kohli’s somewhat fantastical numbers. Jai ho! All kudos to Mohan Guruswamy who asked Modi Toady Sunil Alagh if they were both talking about the same country when Alagh toed the Kohli line.

     

    But forget NDTV. Let’s look instead at the glorious and brave Bhupendra Chaubey on CNN-News18. Actor Paresh Rawal, now a BJP MP, demonstrated both his serious brain power and great sense of humour when he tweeted that instead of tying a stone pelter to a jeep, the army should have tied writer Arundhati Roy instead. Roy has long been a BJP critic, a government critic and stood up for the rights of anyone affected by state oppression. Obviously she is unpopular amongst nationalists especially nationalists who co-relate the nation with whoever is in power at the time.

     

    On Monday, Chaubey tweeted the question around which his show would be based, with this soon-to-be a classic for TV brainiacs: “Is Paresh Rawal right in asking for author Arundhati Roy to be tied as a human shield?”

     

    In a deeply philosophical sense, every question needs to be asked. Why not also ask, “Was the Jharkhand mob right in lynching people it suspected of a crime without any proof?” However, there is philosophy and there is stupidity and I leave you to figure out the difference. It is not that difficult.

     

  • Even as the numbers from BARC are awaited, our study throws up some interesting findings… read on

    The MxMIndia-MRSSINDIA Poll on English News Channels

     

    By  A Correspondent

     

    India has seen launches of several media entities. But in recent years, the launch of Republic TV has been the most high profile. This could be possibly because of the entities involved: Arnab Goswami, decidedly the most well-known journalists across genres, and Times Now, which is part of one of India’s largest, richest and most powerful media conglomerates.

     

    While Republic TV launched on May 6, and there have been some numbers from OTT platform Hotstar and digital media that have come in, the numbers of consequence – from BARC India – will be out only on Thursday, May 18.

     

    MxMIndia commissioned leading marketing and opinion research firm MRSS India (www.mrssindia.com) to conduct a small study to find the mood of the masses, especially in urban India.

     

    Here’s the summary of the findings:

    :: Majority of English news channel viewers mentioned they are aware of ‘Republic TV’ English news channel and most of them (41%) perceive it to be ‘Better than Others’.

    :: Centre wise, Mumbai (41%) perceive it as ‘More Credible’, Delhi (39%) find it ‘Old Wine …’, Bengaluru, Chennai, Kolkata and Ahmedabad English news channel viewers find Republic TV ‘Better than others’.

    :: Aggressive approach is found more appropriate for Debates, Breaking news and Analysis & interpretations. whereas, softer approach is found more appropriate for News deliver, soft news, sports and business news.

    :: Most viewers look at News channels to be opinionated but there is also a strong sense of believe that news channels should also play a vital role in bringing about political or social changes.

    :: Overall, print is a more trusted source (51%), closely followed by News channels, currently online (websites) are not considered a trust worthy source. News paper is more trusted by viewers in New Delhi, Bengaluru, Kolkata and Chennai. News Channels are considered better trusted source by viewers in Mumbai and Ahmedabad.

    :: When it is need to verify news, the first source is News Television (54%). This is more in Chennai (54%), Kolkata (68%) and Ahmedabad (67%).

    :: Arnab Goswami and Rajdeep Sardesai are considered the most trusted news anchor by close to 1/3rd of the viewers. Barkha Dutt comes at third place. While Goswami leads comfortably in Bengaluru and Kolkata. Sardesai has higher trust value in New Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai. Dutt is relatively strong in Ahmedabad and Chennai.

    :: Among the English news channels visited in last 1 week, Republic TV was 41%, Times Now is 35%, followed by NDTV 24×7 is 32%.

  • As Republic TV gets set for launch this week, other news channels rev up their act, writes Pradyuman Maheshwari

    So who will win the English News TV war?

     

     

    By Pradyuman Maheshwari

    As you read this, ArnabGoswami would be in his state-of-the-art news floor, putting finishing touches to his launch plans for Republic TV. The billboards are out, and the ‘coming soon’ has made way for the final pitch.

    But not far from the editorial headquarters of Republic is the Times Now newsroom. The brains trust there has been working overtime for a few months so that their former main man’s new venture doesn’t steal the thunder.

    In many ways, Goswami has already done that. And despite all the savvy mediaminds that it has in its fold, Times Now has actually contributed to the buzz around the Republic TV launch. The sending of legal notices may have been standard practice, but it gave enough ammunition to Goswami.

    Launching a channel is possibly the easiest of the tasks on hand. Ensuring that it thrives and hence survives are the tougher things to do. Goswami should know. Despite the moneypower of The Times of India group behind it, Times Now was floundering at launch in early 2006. It was almost like what NewsX is today.

    It took some effort and reorientation for the Times Now primetime to stand out and although the world says that its star was on the ascendant post November 26, 2008,  I thought Goswami was looking good from around a year earlier.

    In fact friends at CNN-IBN were mighty upset when I wrote that Arnab was better than RajdeepSardesaiat primetime. But he was… he asked the tough questions.

    Before one delves further on Republic and Times Now, let’s look at the rest.

    First WION, the newest English news channel. Zee Group chief Subhash Chandra’s intent of starting an international news channel with an Indian POV was great, but it sadly appears to be going nowhere. The only good contribution is that it’s creating some employment for newswallahs. WION made a disastrous start with Rohit Gandhi as editor. Now, with Sudhir Chaudhary at the helm, the man who anchors the most watched primetime show on Hindi News TV, it’s possibly trying to earn some stripes, but will it make a difference to the fortunes of Republic TV?Will it change the rankings of its tribe? No way.

    And what about NewsX? From what I understand, even though it’s not perceived to among an English news channel that matters, given that it’s got the India News backing and a media group that has fair muscle, it may not be entirely inconsequential. Also, it does have some good people working for it. But not again in the Top 3. Not even in the Top 5.

    So, who’s left now:

    NDTV 24×7, CNN-IBN, ah well, CNN-News18  and India Today.

    Hey, before that, one must not forget DD News, DD Lok Sabha and DD Rajya Sabha. All are doing their bit given the constraints of being government/Parliament-owned. The primetime DD News bulletin has an excellent round-up capsule at 9.45pm, but that’s only good for those who dislike the talking heads brand of television journalism, or are taking the Civil Services or entrances where GK is tested.

    Getting back to the threesome.

    NDTV 24×7: I was worried about how the channel would do minus BarkhaDutt, but I must say that she isn’t being missed much. Sreenivasan Jain is still no answer to Dutt, but I quite like the new primetime format that the channel has adopted. My worry is that it’s happened five years late. The final view: unless the others flounder, Dr Prannoy Roy will still be counted as the pioneer of the English News TV business, but his channel has lost out. And this time, his executives can’t even crib about the ratings.

    CNN-News18: The channel could’ve been in the dumps after RajdeepSardesai quit in 2014, but it’s commendable to see it make a comeback with a brand new leadership team and primetime faces. Zakka Jacob is excellent, and very confident of himself. Andif last night was any indication, he can shout at Pakistan defence analysts louder than Goswami and Navika Kumar put together. And he can rubbish them (the Pakistanis) to their face. I also found bossman Rahul Joshi excellent in his interviews with the Prime Minister, Amit Shah and a few others, but what CNN-News18 needs is a little something that it’s not taking it to the top slot. Loads more than just new shows clearly.

    India Today: Part of the India Today stable, it lost Karan Thapar recently who is by far one of the best interviewers on English News Television. But the rest of star cast exists – RajdeepSardesai, Rahul Kanwal and a recent addition being Anjana Om Kashyap, the leading AajTak anchor, who has just started her innings at 7pm. From what one learns, her show is supposed to match the noise factor of Republic, but if that was the yardstick, then perhaps having it closer to 9pm would’ve been better. While it was the Republic-Times Now war for viewership that was to be the focus of attention, it was interesting to see an India Today billboard right next to Republic’s. If nothing else, it helped create a buzz, though it won’t be right to compare the Kashyap show with Goswami’s primetime act.

    Times Now: It’s got itself to blame for the mess it finds itself in. Look at NDTV 24×7, CNN-News18 and India Today. None of them are dependant on just one face, and that’s the only reason why they’ve survived despite leading lights exiting the channel in recent years. But despite several CEOs and marketing heads helming the channel, they weren’t able to get a face who could match that ofGoswami’s. Or be a strong second-in-command. Sad. But now that what shouldn’t have happened has happened, Times Now is trying its best to counterArnabGoswami’s Republic. Can Navika Kumar’s Newshour kill Goswami’s primetime act? No way! Times Now ought to have reinvented itself like NDTV 24×7 has done rather than pursue the path of nationalistic belligerence where it clearly won’t be able to match Goswami. Times Now’s attempt to launch a flanking channel in the form of Mirror Now is a non-starter as of now, and I would’ve thought its editor and primetime face Faye D’Souza would’ve made for a good Newshour presenter.

    Republic TV:From the interview he gave me last week, it’s clear that Republic TV won’t be dramatically different from Times Now. It will of course sharpen the offering and with new shows and anchors. Goswami says he will have a clear second and third line, but there’s no denying that the present and future of the channel depends entirely on its founder and editor-in-chief. Does it have a future? Of course it does. But sadly content alone doesn’t make a channel successful. Distribution and other marketing dynamics are crucial, and that’s where it will need really big monies. Goswami is known to be a keen student of viewership analytics, he’ll surely be pouring over numbers to check what works and what doesn’t. What’s also interesting is that the orchestration with digital will be seamless (or so he promises), something that the others haven’t done well, even though the web entities of CNN-News18 and NDTV24x7 are very popular.

    So will Republic TV kill Times Now?Tough to do that in Week #1. And even if it does, it’s too early to predict how it will be six weeks later. However, if after all the excitement that has been built up over the last few months, it doesn’t get the right numbers, Goswami and Republic will need to re-examine their proposition. Ditto for Times Now which must relook at its offering any which way. And where does this leave India Today, CNN-News 18 and NDTV 24×7? As of now, I don’t see much of a change at NDTV. The other two will do their best to win a battle being fought essentially between Times Now and Republic. India Today says it’s got the most democratic newsroom, CNN-News18 has fashioned itself as non-aligned even though it’s owned by MukeshAmbani.

    The next few weeks/months are going to be exciting. And we’ll be watching and evaluating. Beyond just the numbers.

    PS: Interestingly, over the last few weeks, or months actually, the channel that’s knocking at the #1 slot is CNBC-TV18. But then that works well for only revenues. The war is still among the eight, or seven, or five, or four…

     

  • Amagi enables new ad revenue stream for NDTV

    NDTV chooses Amagi Storm to localize advertising in the Middle East

    By A Correspondent

     

    Amagi has announced that NDTV 24×7 will use its STORM regionalization platform to insert regional ads in the Middle East on the channel’s Asia-Pacific satellite feed.

     

    “NDTV is expanding its viewership base amongst the vast expatriate population in the Middle East. We were looking for ways to provide local advertisers in the region access to our clearly segmented viewership. Post evaluation of multiple vendor platforms, Amagi’s ad-insertion solution emerged as the perfect choice as it allowed us to regionalize our channel in the Middle East without creating new, expensive satellite feeds,” said Dinesh Singh, CTO, NDTV.

     

    “Content regionalization and monetization have been a growing need for TV networks globally. Amagi’s STORM IRD series integrates ad and content insertion capability with traditional IRD functionality thereby making it easy for TV networks to regionalize their satellite feeds. Amagi’s STORM platform is deployed across more than 4,000 headends and is a time-tested & reliable solution. We are excited to have India’s leading news network, NDTV on board as our valued client,” commented KA Srinivasan, co-founder, Amagi.

     

    For NDTV, Amagi inserts unique content watermarks on advertisements that need to be replaced in the Middle East. These watermarked content assets are transmitted over the satellite as per the channel playlist. The local ads that need to be played out only in the Middle East region and associated local playlists are transmitted through a trickle satellite bandwidth to be stored in Amagi’s STORMLite IRDs deployed at NDTV’s headends in the region. When the STORMLite IRD receives the watermarked content assets, basis the local playlists, it replaces the watermarked content with local ads which are already stored in the device.

     

    “For a live news channel such as ours, the Amagi watermark triggers turned out to be a much more reliable content trigger mechanism than SCTE-35 and DTMTF cue-tones. With Amagi, we monetized our channel in the Middle East including the Aston bands without affecting existing workflow and systems. The solution was easy to implement and we are very satisfied with the final outcome. The ad-insertions have been flawless and we are confident that the regional advertisers will benefit from geo-targeting” said Prashant Rawat, Head of Broadcast Operations, NDTV.

     

  • NDTV 24×7 and Good Times launched on Singapore's StarHub TV platform

    NDTV can now be watched in Singapore, la

    By A Correspondent

     

    Leading news broadcaster New Delhi Television (NDTV) has announced it entered Singapore on October 18 with NDTV 24×7 and NDTV Good Times on StarHub TV

     

    Speaking on the occasion, Rohit Jaiswal, Associate Vice President, Network Distribution and Affiliate Sales, NDTV, said, “We are very pleased to announce the launch of our channels on StarHub TV. Like in other parts of the world, our channels, which are now available in over 78 countries, will aid Indian expatriates and everyone else who has an interest in India keep abreast with a constantly evolving India.”

     

    “We are pleased that New Delhi Television has chosen StarHub TV as its preferred platform to showcase their premium channels to the Singapore audience. The addition of NDTV 24×7 and NDTV Good Times will strengthen StarHub TV’s Indian content line-up by offering more entertainment choices for our customers,” said Lee Soo Hui, Head of Media Business Unit, StarHub.

     

    The channels are also available on StarHub TV Anywhere via www.starhubtvanywhere.com. TV Anywhere is StarHub’s multiscreen solution which allows StarHub TV customers to watch their favorite TV channels on their subscription plan using their personal devices.

     

  • NDTV channels 24×7 and Good Times are now available on Dish Network in the US, bringing the channels to 74 countries and 18 million households outside India.

    NDTV expands global reach in US

    By Akash Raha

     

    NDTV 24×7 and NDTV Good Times is now available on Dish Network in the US, bringing the channels to 74 countries and 18 million households outside India.

     

    Both channels are now a part of Dish Network’s South Asian Mega pack along with other channels from India. In addition, NDTV 24×7 also becomes the first Indian channel to also be available in their international base pack as well.

     

    Commenting on the launch, Vikram Chandra, Executive Director and Group CEO, NDTV Limited said, “NDTV is delighted to be partnering with Dish Network to bring its content to an even wider audience in the US. We recognize that Dish dominates the South Asian market in the US, but we are also delighted that NDTV 24×7 will also be available to a wider audience through their International base pack. We hope our association helps both companies reach new heights.”

     

    The launch of NDTV 24×7 in Dish Network’s international base pack comes close on the heels of the launch on Virgin in the UK, where it also became the only Indian channel to be launched in their basic pack.

     

    NDTV’s channels are now available in the leading platforms across the US, UK, Canada, Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, Australia-New Zealand and the Indian sub-continent, among others, and reach more households than General Entertainment Channels (GECs) in the international market.

     

    In addition, NDTV Good Times, India’s very own lifestyle channel, has also done well in the international market, allowing the Indian Diaspora to enjoy the range of offerings that it brings, and giving them a taste of the New India. Within four years of its launch NDTV Good Times is available in key international markets, including the US and Canada, with a launch in the UK already in the pipeline.