Star Unveils 24-Hr News Channel

Giving many a broadcaster something good to think about and, maybe, rejoice too, Prime Minister I K Gujral yesterday said, "Electronic media should mirror various issues before the people and let the people decide... without trying to project any one personality during the elections."

Speaking during a launch of Star News, a 24-hour news channel, the Prime Minister said that multiplicity of channels would give the populace an "information option", as single information channel and electronic media "monopoly is not good."

Star News, the latest offering from the stable of Rupert Murdoch-controlled Star TV, will formally go on air from Thursday in association with Prannoy Roy-promoted NDTV.

 

Though it is still not clear whether Star News would provide live coverage of events during the run up to the elections or during the counting of votes, a diversified fare has been put on offer.

The all-new programming will feature programmes like `

The Battleground With Prannoy Roy' five days a week, Sunil Sethi-hosted `Beyond The Headlines' and `30 Minutes With Rajat Sharma', a daily election special.

Senior information and broadcasting ministry officials told Business Standard yesterday that neither Star TV or NDTV had as yet applied to the government for uplinking permission, unlike BBC and Zee.

"We, at the ministry, have not seen/received any application seeking permission grant of uplink facility for the 24-hour Star's news channel," the officials said.

Dwelling on competition arising out a multichannel scenario, Gujral said that such competition would ensure healthy development and improve professionalism besides giving viewers information from different sources.

Speaking on the occasion, Star TV's chief executive (South Asia), R Basu said, " Our principal goal is to provide balanced and unbiased information on issues, parties, and personalities and provide an opportunity to parties to communicate with the voters." Non-stop programming and news every hour on Star News will be beamed via Asiasat-2 and will be free-to-air.

The channel can be seen in 53 countries accounting for 63 per cent of the world's population.