NEW DELHI: Network18 has unveiled a new and common identity for all group news channels, which will be seen across the news stable, and a pledge to focus on and highlight more Indian languages.
Commenting on the launch, Network18 chairman Adil Zainulbhai said, “As regional markets deepen and the hunger for vernacular news continues to rise inexorably, we have carried our strengths into multiple linguistic geographies through new regional channels and digital properties. Our portfolio of national channels across news genres provides us a platform that places us at a substantial advantage versus competitors.” In short: the reach is the strength.
The unveiling was done at the group-organised event themed 'News18 Rising India Summit’ in the presence of national and international luminaries from the fields of governance, arts, business and academia. The occasion was graced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who delivered a keynote address outlining his government’s vision for India.
Dignitaries present included ministers Piyush Goyal, Nitin Gadkari and Suresh Prabhu; CMs Shivraj Singh Chauhan, Jai Ram Thakur, Manohar Lal Khattar; and other public figures like politicians Farukh Abdullah, Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Anurag Thakur and personalities such as Nobel laureate economist Paul Krugman, Gautam Adani of Adani Group, Naveen Jindal of Jindal Steel, State Bank of India CMD Rajnish Kumar, Anil Agarwal of Vedanta, Shikha Sharma of Axis Bank, filmstar Kangana Ranaut and adman-cum-CBFC chairman Prasoon Joshi.
Talking about News18 Network, the network’s president Avinash Kaul said, “The television measurement agency BARC measures viewership pattern of 78 crore people in the country, out of which over 67 crore people watched News18 Network channels in the last one year, which means about 86 per cent viewers watched news channels of our network. News18 Network is not just the largest television news network but is also the largest digital news brand present in multiple languages. In fact, News18 Network has more monthly viewers (41 crore) than the entire claimed readership of newsprint readers in a month.”
News18 covers 26 states and is present in 15 languages in the country. The network’s flagship English general news channel is CNN-News18 and Hindi general news channel is News18 India. Through Panorama, a subsidiary of TV18, the network operates a bouquet of 13 regional news channels namely News18 Urdu, News18 Rajasthan, News18 Bihar/Jharkhand, News18 Madhya Pradesh/Chattisgarh, News18 Uttar Pradesh/Uttarakhand, News18 Bangla, News18 Kannada, News18 Gujarati, News18 Odia, News18/Punjab/Haryana/Himachal Pradesh, News18 Kerala, News18 Tamil Nadu and News18 Assam/North East. News18 Network is also present across the globe in countries such as the US, UK, Australia and the UAE.
TV18 also operates a joint venture with the Lokmat Group, which houses the Marathi news channel News18 Lokmat. To cover the global audience and sizeable NRI population, TV18 operates News18, a twenty-four hour television news channel designed to give global audiences a window into the world’s largest democracy.
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