In order to accelerate global news reaching every door Times Now is launching in UK. Times Now is India’s most watched English News Channel that is launching on Monday in UK. It triggers global growth plans that the company says will in time see it challenge broadcasters like Al Jazeera and the BBC.
The high hopes of making it far more global is another initiative in Modi’s UK visit. Times Now which is backed by Bennett, Coleman & Co, a media conglomerate that owns the Times of India newspaper, will target Britain’s 1.4m diaspora Indians by rebroadcasting existing shows on Sky, the UK’s largest pay-television platform.
This launch since it targeted its US launch past in 2011 is a footstep in expanding in European corner. It is looking forward to expand in Germany and France by next year.
It is certainly a milestone step for Times Now where it has hired a lot many people in London and made it big. A fine step after it went outside India.
MK Anand Chief Executive said “The UK launch is extremely important. It can be our biggest diaspora market and a bridge into Europe . . . Over the longer run there is no reason for us not to envisage Times Now as a global brand. He also added “Al Jazeera is an English-language channel which is talking about the world with an Arabic lens, and in time we can do the same for an Indian world view.”
The launch comes to the time when the relation between India and Britain were at peak after the three day visits of Narendra Modi to UK last week.
Nalin Mehta, author of Behind A Billion Screens, a book on Indian media said “In the long run, India has the wherewithal, the talent and the English-language base to build a global brand on the Al Jazeera model,but to do so will require a totally different level of investment, ambition, and editorial mindset, and they aren’t there yet.”
