MUMBAI / NEW DELHI: Prannoy Roy's New Delhi Television (NDTV) has made official its intent to launch its Hindi news channel after March 2003, with advertisements in a national daily today.
According to the advertisement in The Times of India, NDTV will be launching its Hindi news channel , early next year.
The ad specifies that the channel is looking to hire reporters, correspondents, anchors, junior and senior editorial staff, camerapersons, engineers, graphic artists and designers. No details of the qualifications or the minimum experience required for the various posts are mentioned.
The production company obviously requires manpower only for the Hindi channel, as an entire team is already in place for the English channel it is reportedly simultaneously launching. With Aaj Tak also having advertised for personnel in various positions last month, the proposed news channels are now gearing for a hefty recruitment drive.
The ad also gives a hint towards the probable name of the Hindi news channel, NDTV World.
Efforts made by indiantelevision.com to get in touch with NDTV to know the details of the proposed news channel yielded no results.
According to broadcasting industry sources, the advertisement's wordings also makes it clear that NDTV is likely to launch its own channels instead of tying up with a media company for Star-type contract. It is now an open secret in the industry that the NDTV-AOL Time Warner tie-up, being talked about some time back during former AOL Time Warner chief Gerald Levin's India visit, is a closed chapter.
Industry sources also pointed out that NDTV has opened up talks with Sony Entertainment Television India for a possible distribution deal for the proposed Hindi news channel. Sony ideally would like to have a news channel in its bouquet as CNBC India's exit from the Sony bouquet is now just a matter of time. The Sony-TV-18 (one of the shareholders in CNBC India) distribution deal also comes to an end in March, 2003.
In the meantime, NDTV has already made a start for its news channel having recruited senior TV journalist, Dibang, from Aaj Tak. It is being rumoured that some more anchors may follow Dibang to NDTV.
