NEW DELHI, JUNE 2: STAR TV has decided to do away with the monopoly on its newscasts by New Delhi Television (NDTV). In about two months, Rajat Sharma’s Independent Media Private Limited (IMPL) will start producing the Hindi bulletin at 7 pm.
The contract has been signed in Mumbai on Monday. The bulletin may be simulcast on the Star News Channel, news programming for which is almost exclusively provided for NDTV. This deal is expected to herald the takeover by Sharma’s production house of the Hindi news.
In March, senior journalist Mrinal Pande quit NDTV after a reported lack of editorial control in the newscasts. Although she had introduced her own team for the election telecast, she had been chafing at what she saw as the transliteration of English to Hindi news.
The new bulletins are expected to be written and reported in Hindi. Sharma, who will anchor the news, was earlier head of news at Zee TV, where his brand of Hinglish raised as many hackles as it got plaudits. This proposal by Sharma doing theHindi news was on the anvil for a while. The Star News Channel is also expected to undergo a revamp in three months.