How will you sell Headlines Today once NDTV launches its English channel complete with well-known faces likePrannoy Roy, Rajdeep Sardesai, Barkha Dutt and others?
Star News has been in the business for the last six years. When it was a completely English channel, its market share was 5 to 6 per cent. When it became Hindi and English, its market share went up to 12 per cent. If presenters made such a big difference, Star News should have had a 40 per cent share of the market or 25 per cent, at least. The names that you mentioned did nothing for the viewership, considering that Star News was owned by one of the best media companies. So it’s not true that people want to watch these people. Is Headlines Today facing distribution problems? Just teething troubles. We have met cable operators and they said that they would connect us. We have already distributed boxes to cover 14 million English-speaking homes. Since the launch of Aaj Tak, the cable distribution industry has gone through a phase of consolidation. So while we distributed about 3,200 boxes for Aaj Tak, we may be giving out about 1,800 for Headlines Today. Will some news channels be in tro
