| Even as Prannoy Roy-promoted New Delhi Television Ltd (NDTV) is gearing up for launching its 24-hour business news channel, CNBC TV18, which runs India’s first exclusive business channel, is pulling up its socks to launch its 24-hours Hindi business news channel, to go on air this December.
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| The new channel may be christened as ‘CNBC TV18 Byapar.’
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| CNBC TV18 has already setup three state-of-the-art studios in Mumbai spread over 40,000 square feet area.
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| Talking to Business Standard, Sai Kumar, vice-president of CNBC TV18 said, “We are all set to launch the Hindi business news channel by December. We had decided to launch the new channel much before NDTV’s announcement to launch a new business news channel. It is true that CNBC TV18 is beefing up its operations with the possibility of more and more rival channels joining the melee, but we believe that there is a lot of space for more than one business news channels in India as far as advertising revenue is concerned as it is a fast growing market.”
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| Kumar further said, “We are in this business since none even talked about launching a exclusive business news channel and it is CNBC TV18 which has evolved the idea of a typical business news channel with constant upgradation and change in programming. While we welcome the competition, we also are confident about running our new Hindi channel as we have core competence in handling business news, earned through years of experience.”
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| “Rather, we are considering our own Hindi business channel as a stronger rival for our English business news channel,” Kumar said.
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| CNBC TV18, according to him, is also planning to take the activities of a business news channel out of the corporate board rooms as Kumar believes that business reporting would never be same in near future with more players coming in.
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| It may be recalled here that on September 9, NDTV sought permission from the ministry of information and broadcasting for uplinking its new business channel which according to NDTV officials will be predominantly in English with space for Hindi viewers also.
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| According to a source, TV18 is targetting a revenue of Rs 60-70 crore by end of the fiscal year 2004-05 from its English business channel and the Hindi channel will add further to its revenue.
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| But Kumar denied to share revenue target from the upcoming Hindi business channel. TV18 clocked a turnover of Rs 38 crore by end of the last fiscal year and expects to close its book with Rs 48-50 crore revenue by end of the current fiscal, as it witnessed a significant growth in its income from advertising revenue. |
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