NDTV close to deal with 'Indian Express'

The Prannoy Roy-promoted New Delhi Television is likely to sign a content tie-up with the Indian Express group. Shekhar Gupta, editor and chief executive officer of the group, is also expected to host a show for the channel.

As per the alliance, every story that is broken by Indian Express will also be picked up by the channels. NDTV will also leverage the strengths of Indian Express' foreign reportage.

While the English channel's positioning is going to be up-market, Hindi, sources say, will still be classy but targeting the masses. NDTV officials were not available for comments.

The "break away" technology (just like the split editions in newspapers), which will also give the channels "local" appeal will work on a dual feed system.

The system is expected to allow the channels to break away in a particular city or region and cover a local event or casualty, while the rest of the nation can continue to watch the national news.

Explaining this system, sources said, while a guy in Delhi can watch an update on a major accident and its effect on traffic and the likes, the guys in Bangalore will watch the regular news.

This is being done first time in India but is very popular abroad. This become even more crucial at the time of elections or state budgets, when people are more interested to know about their respective regions in details rather than a national coverage.

Sources indicated that both the channels will launched simultaneously on April 1, 2003 and will be distributed by 'One Alliance' platform. NDTV expects to seed 5,000 boxes by April and is targeting 10,000 by December for the news channels.

The strategy is to reach all networks where One Alliance is present. NDTV channels which will be on Panamsat satellite expects reach 16 million households to begin with.