Times Now, a 24-hour news broadcast channel from India is broadcast only in the South Asian region. Launched in early 2006, it is a joint venture enterprise by the Times Group in India and the Reuters news service. The channel tries to expand Times Group, the largets media conglomerate in South Asia`s, reach into news television programming in India as well as tries and carves out its own slice of the tiny English news channels in the Indian pie. TIMES NOW is brought to you by Times Global Broadcasting Co. Ltd., a Bennett, Coleman & Co and Reuter`s service. TIMES NOW operates out of its dual centres at Mumbai and Delhi and has bureaus in all major locations across India, complemented by the news gathering teams of The Times of India and The Economic Times, in India and globally by the Reuters.
Reliance Infocomm, launched this channel as the first Indian channel on mobile screens, even before its launch on the television screens. The channel, when it started, grabbed Sunil Lulla from the Sony Network to be the CEO and also placed Arnab Goswami as the channel content head. The initial response to the launch of this channel was demure, in response to the numerous other 24-7 News Channels. However, after exposure to English-speaking crowd and in conjunction with creative methods, it has become popular with the wide ranging public. The ratings are increasing and the popularity is growing by the day. The channel aims at providing the Urbane viewers the complete picture of the news that is relevant, presented in a vivid and insightful manner, which enables them to widen their horizons & stay ahead.
The programming ranges from news to entertainment- or more correctly said news in an entertaining way! It airs programmes like Frankly Speaking, All About Her, The News
Hour, Reuters World Report, News Now Overnight and the like.
Only recently in the year 2007 has Times Now emerged as the as the top English news channel, overtaking NDTV 24x7 in the process. According to the latest TAM data, TIMES NOW, with a viewership share of 31%, has a clear lead over competitors NDTV 24x7 and CNN-IBN. TIMES NOW`s growth, especially in the last few months, has effectively changed the dynamics of the English news channel space. In July 2006, the channel carried out a series of innovations to strengthen its content, which dramatically changed the look and feel of the channel and introduced as many as seven new shows in one sweep. And since then the channel has been on a rising spree. More innovations and more new programmes are being planned to launch in the channel by the end of the year 2007. Shows such as The News hour, Snapshots, and The Reuters World Report have catapulted the channel`s category share in the critical 8 pm to 11 pm band. The other key area for the channel has been sports. It grabbed Brett Lee and former Indian cricketers like Sanjay Manjrekar and Kiran More on shows that have seen the channels reach doubling during the cricket season.
