MUMBAI:Arup Ghosh, news director of Channel 7, the news channel from the Jagran group, has put in his papers after a short stint there.
Contacted by Indiantelevision.com, Ghosh confirmed the move, saying, "I joined in December and, along with some other senior people, built up a team that is now fit to run a news channel. I think, it's time for me to look at other ventures now."
Ghosh, reportedly, put in his papers today citing personal reasons. His future course of action is not known yet, though there are talks of "some options" available with him.
Jagran TV director Siddhartha Gupta told Indiantelevision.com that the parting was "amicable."
Later in the evening, an official statement hailed Ghosh's "invaluable contributions as a founding member of Channel 7" and wished him "the very best" in his future ventures.
Broadcast industry sources indicated that after being instrumental in launching two news channels, Sahara Samay Rashtriya and Channel 7, Ghosh would find it difficult to get that type of challenges and satisfaction in existing news ventures.
Ghosh, a print medium journalist migrated to television towards the end of the last century when he joined NDTV. Towards the beginning of this decade, Ghosh, along with another NDTV staffer, Shireen, joined the Sahara group to spearhead its national news channel. Both Shireen and Ghosh quit Sahara last year.
Channel 7, where Ghosh joined in December last as its news director, went formally on air 2 April, promising different treatment to its programming tilted towards non-fiction and hopped on to a DTH platform at the same time to increase its reach, which is supplemented by the cable networks it is managing to ride.
The channel, which has been set up to cater to the vast Hindi-speaking audiences, has lined up several innovative shows like Giraftaar that do not have any anchor, but is a seamless series of crime stories.
The launch of Channel 7, managed by Jagran TV Pvt Ltd, marks the entry of Dainik Jagran, a dominant print medium player, into the TV broadcasting arena. The free-to-air Hindi satellite channel has also confident of securing a presence in 28 million households, across 300 cities in the first month of operations itself, which, incidentally, is today.
The news channel segment is once again witnessing churning as the turnover in various media
organisations is rising. A reason could be some of the big names of Indian television trying to strike out on their own. This includes former managing editor of NDTV, Rajdeep Sardesai, too, who has promised a news product that would be different.
The Rs. 5,500 million news television market is dominated by the present market leader Aaj Tak, which has managed to hang on to the numero uno position for several years, followed by two NDTV channels.
