Before 1990s,
Doordarshan had monopolized newscast on Indian
television and also turned the news programs into a dull exercise.
Now the private channels made the news an essential commodity, a
basic necessity of life like food, cloth and shelter. The strong
point of all today`s news bulletins is their topicality,
objectivity, glossy editing and high-quality visuals. News has
traveled a long way from the DD era. From Local events to
International events, breaking news-to-news analysis, television
soap to page3 news, every happening comes under purview of news.
The emerging media powerhouse provided prime time television
content to almost all leading satellite channels in India including
BBC, Star Plus, Sony Entertainment Television, Zee, MTV and
Discovery. After The India Show, TV18 produced a weekly business
news program India Business Report for BBC World. Indian viewers had
very limited options (like public service broadcaster Doordarshan,
BBC and CNN) for watching the television news. For televised news,
the viewers had to watch Dordarshan and some international news
channels like BBC or CNN. In this race
to provide more news, more information, Zee Television jumped into
the battlefield by launching the news channel Zee News in 1995.
The other round-the-clock news channel, the Murdoch-owned
Star TV beamed its exclusively 24-hour news channels, Star News in
1998. Star made a contract of five year with Prannoy Roy-owned NDTV (New
Delhi Television Company) to provide news content for this news
channel. The untiring exhaustive coverage of the Kargil war between
India and Pakistan gained more publicity and attracted more viewers
towards the electronic channel. After the huge success of news
programme `Aaj Tak`, TV Today group launched a 24-hour
Hindi news channel with the same name `Aaj
Tak`, in December 2000, which covers India with insight, courage
and plenty of local flavor. Within 11 months of its launch, Aaj Tak
emerged as India`s number one news channel and was awarded Best News
Channel award from Indian Television Academy Awards.
With
the expiry, NDTV forayed into broadcasting business by
simultaneously launching two 24-hour news channels; NDTV 24X7 -
English news channel and NDTV India - Hindi news channel, which
targets the Indian Diaspora across the world. The world`s largest
family `Sahara India Parivar` launched a 24-hour national Hindi news
channel, Sahara
Samay, in March 28, 2003. It is the first ever city-centric
satellite news channels covering 31 cities in India with their own
city news bulletins.
The emerging media powerhouse provided prime time television
content to almost all leading satellite channels in India including
BBC, Star Plus, Sony Entertainment Television, Zee, MTV and
Discovery. After The India Show, TV18 produced a weekly business
news program India Business Report for BBC World. Indian viewers had
very limited options (like public service broadcaster Doordarshan,
BBC and CNN) for watching the television news. For televised news,
the viewers had to watch Dordarshan and some international news
channels like BBC or CNN. In this race
to provide more news, more information, Zee Television jumped into
the battlefield by launching the news channel Zee News in 1995.
The other round-the-clock news channel, the Murdoch-owned
Star TV beamed its exclusively 24-hour news channels, Star News in
1998. Star made a contract of five year with Prannoy Roy-owned NDTV (New
Delhi Television Company) to provide news content for this news
channel. The untiring exhaustive coverage of the Kargil war between
India and Pakistan gained more publicity and attracted more viewers
towards the electronic channel. After the huge success of news
programme `Aaj Tak`, TV Today group launched a 24-hour
Hindi news channel with the same name `Aaj
Tak`, in December 2000, which covers India with insight, courage
and plenty of local flavor. Within 11 months of its launch, Aaj Tak
emerged as India`s number one news channel and was awarded Best News
Channel award from Indian Television Academy Awards. 
