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TV-18 Hindi biz channel by year-end
BS Corporate Bureau in Mumbai |
November 02, 2004 11:13 IST
The CNBC TV 18 group's Hindi language business channel is slated to begin its full fledged operations by end of 2004.
Harish Chawla, CEO, said, "We are already a leading English news channel. With the new channel, we want to capture the Hindi masses."
The Hindi channel will be a 24-hour channel. In fact, CNBC-TV 18 is the only channel to have a niche business channel in Hindi. Currently, business news in Hindi forms a segment of major Hindi television channels including Aaj Tak, NDTV India and Zee news.
The group has also acquired international distribution rights for CNBC TV-18. The channel will be broadcasted from November in the US, UK and Middle East where a significant percentage of Indian population resides.
At present, CNBC TV18 reaches out to 19 million households in India. Both these developments are expected to contribute to the company's revenues significantly.
The company's performance in the current quarter has been quite positive.
The company's net profit has seen a 192.6 per cent increase at Rs 7.04 crore (Rs 70.4 million) for the quarter ended September 30 compared with Rs 1.82 crore (Rs 18.2 million) in the corresponding quarter last year.
And the company's revenues from news operations has also registered a 81.2 per cent growth at Rs 19.27 crore (Rs 192.7 million) for the current quarter against Rs 10.63 crore (Rs 106.3 million) in last year's quarter.
CNBC TV 18 has made some significant changes in its operations. The broadcast facility of the channel has been shifted to Mumbai. The company has also acquired an 80 per cent stake in the Mumbai-based Agri Informatics India Pvt Ltd, operating a commodity information service.