The News18 brand seems to be taking centre stage in Mukesh Ambani’s news media business. Ambani-controlled TV18 Broadcast, which is in the process of launching three regional channels under News18 brand, is all set to rebrand its English news channel CNN‐IBN as CNN News18.
IBN, which stands for Indian Broadcasting Network, will be dropped from the logo.
The new brand name and logo are most likely to come into effect from 18 April. The media network is running teasers on the channel about the change in look.
Three promos featuring political commentator Swapan Dasgupta, journalist and author Ajoy Bose, and cricket expert Ayaz Memon are currently on air. The promo says ‘Journalism with passion… coming soon’.
Without getting into the specifics, a top company official confirmed to TelevisionPost.com that the channel would be rebranded on 18 April.
Besides the rebranding, the channel would also unveil fresh programming, said another official.
The company has received the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting’s (MIB) clearance to rebrand the channel as CNN News18.
This the first major change being initiated by TV18 to its English news channel since its takeover by Ambani in 2014.
The change also comes close on the heels of TV18 extending its brand licensing deal with CNN. Earlier, the two partners had decided not to renew their 10-year association.
In fact, Subhash Chandra’s Zee Media Corporation was exploring partnership with CNN for his upcoming global English news channel with an Indian point of view. The talks between the two parties did not materialise, which led to CNN’s reunion with TV18.
TV18 has a news channel News18 India to cater to the Indian diaspora in the international markets. The channel offers content produced by TV18’s various business and general news services including CNN-IBN, CNBC-TV18, CNBC TV18 Prime HD, IBN7, CNBC-Awaaz and CNBC Bajar.
ETV News Network, which houses TV18’s regional news business, is launching three news channels, namely News18 Tamil Nadu, News18 Kerala and News18 Assam/North East. All other channels in ETV News Network currently operate under the ETV brand. Sooner or later, these channels will also don the News18 brand name.
The News18 brand was extended to digital with News18.com, which was launched in 2014 as a local news portal covering news from states where ETV has presence. The portal was subsequently rebranded as Pradesh18.com.
TV18 is the biggest news network with news channels including CNN‐IBN, Hindi news channel IBN7, English business news channel CNBC‐TV18, English business news channel in HD CNBC-TV18 Prime HD, Hindi business news channel CNBC‐Awaaz, Gujarati business news channel CNBC‐Bajar, and Marathi news channel IBN‐Lokmat in joint venture with the Lokmat Group.
Currently, its subsidiary ETV News Network runs 10 regional-language channels, namely ETV Uttar Pradesh/Uttarakhand, ETV Madhya Pradesh/Chhattisgarh, ETV Bihar/Jharkhand, ETV Rajasthan, ETV News Bangla, ETV News Kannada, ETV News Gujarati, ETV News Odia, ETV News Haryana/Himachal and ETV News Urdu. This will increase to 13 with the launch of three new channels.
