• Investment World
• eWorld
• Brand Line
• Mentor
• Life
• Canvas
• Praxis
• Urban Pulse
• Brand Quest
• The New Manager

Stocks

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

Cross Currency

• Rates
  
  

Shipping

• Ports
  
  

Archives

• Yesterday
• Datewise
• Resources
• In Focus
• In Depth

Group Sites

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

Sravanthi Challapalli

Chennai , Sept. 11

TV18 has grouped all its channels and portals under an umbrella brand called CNBC Universe.

Speaking to Business Line, Mr Ajay Chacko, Head-Marketing, CNBC TV18 and CNBC Awaaz, said it would be an integrated business platform for advertisers and viewers. CNBC TV18, CNBC Awaaz, Moneycontrol.com, Commoditiescontrol.com and Compareindia.com comprise the CNBC Universe, which reaches out to more than 40 million affluent, decision-making adults. (This figure includes projected out-of-home viewership of CNBC TV18 and CNBC Awaaz.)

More viewers

Mr Chacko said Awaaz's consumer and small business focus had helped triple the audience for business channels from 10 million viewers at the end of December 2004 to over 32 million viewers in August 2006. Awaaz had recognised that "business existed beyond the English-speaking, elite, metropolitan corporate players and institutional investors and catered to an audience of small and medium entrepreneurs and small investors." Awaaz is positioned as a niche channel and the initial strategy was to not emphasise the CNBC branding lest viewers got the impression it was merely a Hindi version of CNBC TV18, he said.

New biz audience

Quoting reports by TAM, Mr Chacko said CNBC Awaaz accounted for more than 55 per cent of the new business audience since December 2004. Both CNBC Awaaz and NDTV Profit were launched in January 2005. CNBC Awaaz now has 38 per cent market share of business news, making it the country's largest business channel, while CNBC TV18 has 33 per cent. NDTV Profit's share is 19 per cent and Zee Business' 10 per cent. Zee Business was launched in mid-2004 on the direct-to-home platform.

TV18 is launching its personal finance portal moneycontrol.com in Hindi in six weeks. Three weeks ago, it added on compareindia.com in English and Hindi — this is a Web site that offers free information on various consumer goods.

On Awaaz, it has launched many new programmes that educate investors about commodities, consumer confidence and price indices that "are more reflective of reality" as they include more categories of consumables than the government-sponsored CPI and WPI, and an interactive `Guru' series on business, personal finance and investment-related issues.

More Stories on : Brands | Radio/TV | Restructuring

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

Stories in this Section
RSWM to unveil new logo

Copyright © 2006, 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