First On Net: Subhash Chandra’s Zee Media to convert Zee Sangam into national news channel
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20-10-2015, 08:57 AM
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Subhash Chandra’s Zee Media to convert Zee Sangam into national news channel
MUMBAI: Subhash Chandra-promoted Zee Media Corporation Ltd (ZMCL) is converting its Uttar Pradesh/Uttarakhand-focused regional news channel Zee Sangam into a national Hindi news channel named India 24X7. The new channel will be inaugurated by Chandra on 24 October.
India 24X7 will be a free-to-air channel that will be available across all platforms in the Hindi speaking market. It will complement ZMCL’s Hindi news channel Zee News. Incidentally, India 24X7 will be the first news channel from Zee Media stable without the Zee brand. “Zee Sangam is being converted into a national channel called India 24X7. The channel will be inaugurated by Subhash Chandra on 24 October,” said a source close to the development. While Zee News competes with top channels in the Hindi news genre like Aaj Tak, ABP News, and India TV, India 24X7 will compete with FTA channels like News Nation, News24 and India News. The source said that the Hindi news genre is worth Rs 1,200 crore (Rs 12 billion), of which the FTA channels partake as much as Rs 550 crore (Rs 5.5 billion). It is this market that India 24X7 wants to capture. “There is a big fight between the top five and bottom six. There is a good amount of money that is going towards the channels at the bottom six also. We want to have a better share of revenue in that market also,” the source added. Zee Sangam was being headed by ZMCL editor of news operations Vasindra Mishra. There is no clarity yet on who will head the new channel. “ZEE Sangam is being converted into a national channel,” Mishra posted on his Twitter account. In a separate Facebook post, he mentioned, “Our chairman Sri Subhash Chandra ji will inaugurate another Hindi national news channel INDIA 24X7 on October 24, 2015.” With Zee Sangam being converted into India 24X7, ZMCL will not have a dedicated channel for UP/Uttarakhand, which has several players like ETV UP/UK, India News UP/UK, Samay UP/UK, News Nation UP/UK and more. Pertinently, ZMCL is planning to launch an English news channel in February/March next year. It will be an international news channel with an Indian point of view. Chandra had recently stated that the English news channel would be positioned as a technology-driven channel. The company is in talks with CNN for the proposed channel. Rohit Gandhi, who is ZMCL’s editor-in-chief of English news broadcast and related content, will head the new channel. ZMCL owns two national news channels (Zee News and Zee Business) and a clutch of regional news channels, Zee 24 Taas (Marathi), Zee Sangam (UP & UK), Zee Madhya Pradesh Chhattisgarh, Zee Marudhara (Rajasthan), Zee Punjab Haryana Himachal and Zee Kalinga (Odisha). Additionally it operates two regional news channels through its subsidiaries, 24 Ghanta (Bengali) through Zee Akaash News Pvt Ltd and Maurya TV (Bihar & Jharkhand) through Maurya TV Private Limited. The network claims that it reaches over 78.5 million viewers across the country through its television network (Source: BARC, NCCS 4+, All India, ZMCL Channels, June 2015 Reach). Zee Sangam, along with Zee Marudhara (soon to be Zee Rajasthan News) and Zee Kalinga, was earlier part of Terrestrial Entertainment Network (Ten) format, which was a mix of news and entertainment programming. However, the network later moved away from the Ten format to focus purely on news. The company had acquired Bihar news channel Maurya TV in October 2013. It had entered into a share purchase agreement (SPA) with Maurya TV promoters Prakash Jha, Sangita Jha, Manmohan Shetty and Krishanlal Chabbra to acquire 100 per cent stake in the company. The company held 37.87 per cent stake in MTPL until 11 December 2014, which was later hiked to 100 per cent, thus making it a wholly owned subsidiary. ZMCL had bought Maurya TV for an aggregate value of Rs 7.79 crore (Rs 77.9 million). |
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20-10-2015, 08:58 AM
(This post was last modified: 20-10-2015 08:58 AM by jpja.)
Post: #2
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