KOLKATA: It was a big affair when TV18 Broadcast launched the 24-hours Bengali news channel – ETV News Bangla on Monday evening. The network got West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee and actor Prosenjit Chatterjee for the launch that was live telecast on the network’s general entertainment channel (GEC) – ETV Bangla and also on the other Hindi news channels whose viewership is more than 20 crore.

ETV Head, Hindi & Urdu Channels Jagdish Chandra said during the launch that the test signal for the Bengali channel is on and it will go on air on 19 March in all probabilities.

The event became even more interesting when the network announced its plans to launch ETV Kannad on March 19. Chandra also revealed the plans to launch ETV Gujarati news channel on 30 April, in case it is extended it would be launched by 31 May. Even ETV Oriya will be launched on 31 July.

Banerjee, praising the network’s initiative, highlighted the role of the media in molding the society and said ETV’s foray into 24-hour news channel would create employment and give the audiences one more platform to watch news. Lightheartedly, she even remarked that the channel should work in a way that it becomes the ‘essential’ news channel in future.

Chandra spoke elaborately on the editorial policy of the news channel and said the network follows the "news only" concept and would cover welfare and developmental news.

TV18 Broadcast’s non-executive chairman Manoj Mehanka said “content is the king” and asked the journalists of the channel to work hard to get the interesting stories out to the audiences.

It looks like TV 18 Broadcast is on a super active mode to make an effect in the regional news space.