• Investment World
• eWorld
• Catalyst
• Mentor
• Life
• Canvas
• Praxis
• Urban Pulse
• Brand Quest

Stocks

• Quotes
• SE Diary
• Scoreboard
• Open-End Mutual Fund

Cross Currency

• Rates
  
  

Shipping

• Ports
  
  

Archives

• Yesterday
• Datewise
• Resources

Group Sites

• The Hindu
• Business Line
• Sportstar
• Frontline
• The Hindu eBooks
• The Hindu Images

Our Bureau

Chennai , March 3

THE Rs 50-crore business news channel, CNBC TV 18, plans to launch a Hindi channel and also reach audiences in smaller towns. Mr B. Saikumar, Vice-President, Sales and Marketing, CNBC TV 18, said that an investment of Rs 6 crore would go into the setting up the bureaux, for human resource and outdoor broadcasting vans.

He said that business news, as a genre, had come of age and CNBC TV 18 had 44 per cent of the market share, with everyone from housewife to politician being interested in business these days. The forthcoming Lok Sahba election will also be fought on the platform of economic development for the first time, he said.

Quoting the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, he said that India had an estimated 18 million managers and self-employed professionals who traded either in stocks or in some commodity. Considering the amount of business activity there was a gap in the information flow, which the channel aimed to bridge.

Unlike other channels, CNBC TV 18, Mr Saikumar said, had three prime time slots. He said since all key business developments such as the Credit Policy, Union Budget, quarterly results of companies, mergers and acquisitions and live stock market news take place during the day, daytime viewing is a prime time slot for the channel.

Almost 45 per cent of daytime viewing takes place from out of home, which accounts for the difference between the measured and actual business viewership. This is one of the reasons that categories such as fast-moving consumer goods, low-end consumer durables, automobiles and so on use the band. The other slot is in the evening, which is viewed mainly by the top management or decision makers, and the third slot is the feature programme on advertising, health or automobiles, which is targeted at the young professionals.

He said that the company's financial portal moneycontrol.com, which has three-lakh registered users, would be given a boost with more focussed sales and marketing. He said that interactive communities would be built using the channel.

More Stories on : Strategy | Radio/TV | Entertainment & Leisure

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
Handset prices cut by 5-26 pc

Copyright © 2004, The Hindu Business Line. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu Business Line