MUMBAI: Prannoy Roy-promoted NDTV Ltd is floating a joint venture company with The Hindu Group to launch a Chennai city-centric channel.

NDTV will hold 51 per cent in the JV while the Hindu Group will have the balance 49 per cent. The JV will launch MetroNation Chennai, marking Hindu's foray into television news broadcasting.

"We are setting up a joint venture company with The Hindu Group where we will hold 51 per cent. Hindu is a reputed brand at the regional and national level. It was a natural gravitation towards each other," NDTV Group CEO KVL Narayan Rao tells Indiantelevision.com.

The relationship will also extend to content-sharing with the most popular English newspaper in Tamil Nadu. "We aim to launch MetroNation Chennai in the next 3-4 months," Rao says.

Mumbai will see the next launch, but it is likely to be in the next fiscal, Rao adds. NDTV launched MetroNation in Delhi last year to tap the local market.

NDTV will house the MetroNation channels under a subsidiary company.

NDTV is also planning to launch a World cinema channel in the next couple of months. "We have already obtained the licence for it," says Rao.

The marriage between TV news broadcasters and print owners is gaining popularity. Star India has a joint venture partnership with ABP Group while IBN18 (formerly Global Broadcast News) holds a reletionship with Lokmat to run Marathi news channel IBN Lokmat.