Times Now

Infobox TV channel
name= Times Now
logosize=160px
logofile=Times_Now_logo.jpg
logoalt=Times Now logo
launch=January 23, 2006
owner= BCCL & Reuters
country= Flagicon|India India
web=http://www.timesnow.tv
terr avail=Not Available
sat serv 1 = Tata Sky
sat chan 1 = Channel 534
|

Times Now is a 24-hour English news channel broadcast only in the South Asian region. It is a joint-venture of Bennett, Coleman and Co, the publishers of The Times of India and Reuters. It launched early-2006 expanding Times Group's reach into news television programming in India as well as to try and carve out its own slice of the tiny English news channels in India pie. The channel believes in 'news with an opinion' and has a generous sprinkle of politics, sports, entertainment and business.

It was the first channel to be launched first on mobile screens (Reliance Infocomm Network), before it was launched on the television screens

History

Times Now began its planning operations sometime in 2005. They poached Sunil Lulla from the Sony Entertainment Television to be the CEO and also placed Arnab Goswami as the channel content head. A team of young people are the face of the channel. Some of the anchors on the channel are Mahrukh Inayet, Rahul Shivshankar, Harishree Mehta and Aafreen Kidwai.Well-known investigative journalist Navika Kumar is the Political Editor of Times Now.The band of reporters on the channel include Srinjoy Chowdury, Jayanto Bhattacharya, Bhavtosh Singh, Tariq Mir, Dhanya Rajendran, Madhavdas Gopalakrishnan,Sonika Bakshi and Nandita Suneja.

With sports news dominating a large part of the agenda and also considering the fact that it has been the most widely-viewed section, Times Now has a large sports team. Sunder Iyer and Nidhi Tuli are among the familiar faces in the sports team.

Programming

Times Now provides news and entertainment for the urbane audience. Feature shows include:

* Frankly Speaking
* All About Her
* The Newshour
* News Now Overnight
* The Game
* E Now
* Total Recall

Business Channel

In early 2008, reports began to filter out that Times Now is planning to launch a Business News channel. Rahul Joshi, the Executive Editor of Economic Times is slated to lead the channel from an editorial perspective. [ [http://www.exchange4media.com/e4m/news/newfullstory1.asp?news_id=30095&tag=25003&section_id=6 BCCL focuses on leveraging synergies with ET for forthcoming biz news channel] ]

Distribution

Early in 2008 Times Now (and sister channel ZOOm) tied up with Star TV India (a News Corp company) for distribution in India. Star being the largest TV network brings distribution clout (and subscription revenues) to the two Times Group channels. [ [http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/News_By_Company/Companies_A-Z/S_Companies_/STAR/Star_joins_hands_with_TIMES_NOW_and_Zoom/articleshow/2306076.cms Star joins hands with Times Now and Zoom] ]

Popularity

The initial response to the launch of this channel was demure, in response to the numerous other 24-7 News Channels. However, after exposure to English-speaking crowd and in conjunction with creative methods, it has become more popular with the wide ranging public. The ratings are now increasing. The channel ratings grew from 22% in January 2007 to 42% in November 2007 making it the top English channel on Indian television.The award-winning The Game was rated number 1 on 4th January 2007 by TRP as measured by INTAM (Indian Television Audience Measurement).

International

One of the channels flagship programs, "Reuters World Report" is co-anchored by Siddhartha Dubey in London and Elan Dutta in Mumbai. Major contributions to this program are made from the New York bureau, with reporters Diane King and Natasha Israni. However, after the channel's agreement with Reuters came to an end, the show has since been replaced by News Now Overnight.

References

External links

* [http://www.timesnow.tv Official Site]