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Contacted by Indiantelevision.com, a source in NDTV did
not confirm or deny the development on NDTV Nation, but added, "No
final decision (on the name) has been taken yet."
Though details of the proposed channel are still hazy, it is expected
that NDTV Nation would be a news channel focusing on news of various
regions of India.
PERMISSION FOR A 5TH CHANNEL SOUGHT?
Interestingly, government sources in the know of the developments,
say NDTV has sought permission for a fifth channel as well, which
is likely to have niche sports programming as its dominant content
offering.
When queried about uplink permission sought for a fifth channel,
the NDTV source denied it outright, categorically stating there
is no fifth channel in the pipeline as of now.
It is worth noting here that NDTV has already made a play in the
sporting property rights arena - recently submitting financial bids
for telecast rights for the All India Football Federation. The other
contenders in the fray are ESPN Star Sports, Zee Sports, Nimbus
and Leisure Sports Management.
According to information available, the attempt to bid for the
football rights is just a step towards realising a bigger dream
of NDTV --- that of having a bouquet of channels of its own straddling
most of the traditional genres of programming.
According to a market analyst, in the $ 4.5 billion Indian entertainment
industry, the advertising industry is expected to grow strongly
by around 12 per cent in FY 2006-2008. TV will increase its share
of ad pie from 47 per cent to 50 per cent in the next three years
to cross Rs 50 billion, the analyst states. Not surprisingly, within
the TV segment, news broadcasting is the fastest growing one.
NDTV scrip opened on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on Monday
at Rs 208 after closing on 17 June, Friday at Rs 206.
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