The Hindu : NDTV breaks out with 'breakout' concept

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Apr 11, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Karnataka-Bangalore

NDTV breaks out with 'breakout' concept

By Our Special Correspondent

Bangalore April 10. NDTV became an independent 24-hour news channel, with its President and broadcasting icon, Prannoy Roy, declaring at a multi-city videoconference that "we are not a dumb channel for dumb people".

Replying to questions from presspersons in Bangalore, he said the city-specific programmes or `breakouts' will eventually cover more centres like the capital of Karnataka, and posed the question: "Do you want it in English and/or Kannada?" The presspersons said "both".

The `breakout' concept, introduced for the first time in India, allows viewers in a particular city watch a programme specific to their city in the local language while the rest of the country watches the national news. "Even CNN or BBC does not offer this, and it gives us more flexibility in reporting breaking news in a city," Mr. Roy said.

NDTV will have two channels, 24X7 in English and NDTV India in Hindi, which means more news in both languages.

All the familiar faces of well-known anchors will be there. Rajdeep Sardesai, Barkha Dutt, Sonia Singh, Arnab Goswami, Jennifer Arul, Monideepa Banerjee, and Nidhi Razdan on the English channel. There will be a Bangalore connection with Srinivasan Jain, grandson of the late M.A.Srinivasan. Popular programmes like `Big Fight' and `We The People' will remain, with a new look.

NDTV has decided to pull out all stops with regard to technology. For the first time, an Indian news organisation will have its own helicopter, a Bell Jetranger 206, in Delhi. Arrangements have been made with Deccan Aviation to access nine other helicopters and two planes in other cities.

For live reports there will be 18 outdoor broadcasting vans.

Responding to questions, Mr. Roy and his colleagues emphasised that the NDTV channels would have journalists and not just newsreaders, objectivity would be maintained, and that they believed in self-regulation. "We would rather have our own codes than having the Government police us," he remarked.

Signature tunes for the Hindi and English channels have come from A.R.Rahman and David Lowe, known for his work for BBC World.

The NDTV channels, using Panamsat, will start reaching homes from April 14 as part of the Sony bouquet of cable channels.

It is likely to eventually become a pay channel.

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