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This was one hell of a swayamwar. The groom: Turner International's CNN. The prospective brides: a number of existing and proposed India based news channels. After inspecting each of the hopefuls, CNN made its decision: the marriage was to be with the TV18- Rajdeep Sardesai-Sameer Manchanda offspring, India Broadcast News (IBN).
TV18 was obviously delighted with the inking of the agreement, which will see a co-branded CNN-IBN offering, which envisages a significant amount of content sharing. Says Haresh Chawla, CEO, CNBC-TV18 India, "We now have the best talent as far as editorial is concerned in the form of Rajdeep Sardesai and his team; the execution skills from running two successful channels in CNBC-TV18 and Awaaz; the management and marketing experience of the same two channels; the distribution that Sameer Manchanda will surely ensure and the global access and expertise of CNN. We believe we have the finest combination that a channel needs to succeed in the current environment. With this partnership,
we now have the best resources to effectively win in a marketplace which, at present, sees largely monopoly play.” Anshuman Misra, MD, Turner International India Pvt. Ltd., clarifies the reasons for the decision to partner with TV18. "India is an important market for Turner and we are constantly exploring business opportunities here. We were looking for an appropriate firstclass media partner, who shared the same editorial values and passion for objective journalism as we do at CNN; and we found the right partner with GBN. The agreement is an important part of CNN News Group's
commitment to continued expansion internationally…
To read this article entirely, buy a copy of Impact Advertising & Marketing magazine dated October 31-November 6.