Network18 Media & Investments Limited, (formerly SGA Finance and Management Service and Network18 Fincap Limited) commonly referred to as the Network18 Group and sometimes as the Network18–Eenadu Group,
is an Indian
media conglomerate
A media conglomerate, media group, or media institution is a company that owns numerous companies involved in mass media enterprises, such as music, television, radio, publishing, motion pictures, theme parks, or the Internet. According to the ...
owned by the energy giant
Reliance Industries
Reliance Industries Limited is an Indian multinational conglomerate company, headquartered in Mumbai. It has diverse businesses including energy, petrochemicals, natural gas, retail, telecommunications, mass media, and textiles. Reliance is ...
, headed by billionaire
Mukesh Ambani
Mukesh Dhirubhai Ambani (born 19 April 1957) is an Indian billionaire businessman. He is the chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries Ltd. (RIL), a Fortune Global 500 company and India's most valuable company by market value. Acco ...
. Rahul Joshi is the managing director,
chief executive officer
A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...
and group
editor-in-chief
An editor-in-chief (EIC), also known as lead editor or chief editor, is a publication's editorial leader who has final responsibility for its operations and policies.
The highest-ranking editor of a publication may also be titled editor, managing ...
of Network18, and
Adil Zainulbhai
Adil Zainulbhai is the chairman of Network18 Group, the mass media subsidiary of the conglomerate Reliance Industries. He is also the chairman of Quality Council of India (QCI) since 2014, and has been appointed as the chairman of the Capacity ...
is the chairman of its board of directors.
Network18 is the holding company of
TV18 Broadcast
TV18 Broadcast Limited (formerly Global Broadcast News and IBN18 Broadcast Limited) is an Indian entity belonging to Network18 Group based in Mumbai. TV18 owns and operates various national channels in separate partnerships with NBCUniversal ( ...
,
Web18 Software Services
Web18 (Web18 Software Services Limited) is the Internet and mobile arm of Network 18, an Indian media conglomerate. It has a variety of information and transactional services based on the Internet.
The TV18 group holds 85 per cent in Web18 Hold ...
, Network18 Publishing and Capital18. Through its subsidiaries and franchise licensing agreements, the group owns and operates the news broadcasting networks of News18, and
CNBC channels in India, the magazines of ''
Forbes India
''Forbes India'' is the Indian edition of ''Forbes'' which is managed by Reliance Industries-owned media conglomerate, Network 18.
History and profile
Since its founding in 2008, ''Forbes India'' has achieved a circulation of 50,000 copies and ma ...
'' and ''
Overdrive
Overdrive may refer to:
Organizations
* OverDrive, Inc., a digital distributor of entertainment media
** OverDrive Media Console, a media player developed by OverDrive, Inc.
* Overdrive PC, a subsidiary of Velocity Micro
Technology
* Overdrive ...
'', the websites of ''
Firstpost
''Firstpost'' is an Indian online news and media website. The site is a part of the Network 18 media conglomerate owned by Reliance Industries, which also runs CNN-News18 and CNBC-TV18.
The ''Network 18'' group was originally owned by Raghav ...
'' and ''
Moneycontrol
Network18 Media & Investments Limited, (formerly SGA Finance and Management Service and Network18 Fincap Limited) commonly referred to as the Network18 Group and sometimes as the Network18–Eenadu Group, is an Indian media conglomerate owned b ...
,'' and owns various other assets and investments. The broadcasting subsidiary TV18 is the controlling partner in two mass media joint ventures,
Viacom18
Viacom18 Media Private Limited is an Indian media and entertainment joint venture between TV18 and Paramount Global based in Mumbai. It was founded in 2007 and owns various channels, as well as content production studios in India.
History
In ...
and AETN18, through which it operates the OTT platforms of
Voot
Voot is an Indian subscription video on-demand and over-the-top streaming service, owned by Viacom18. Launched in March 2016, it is Viacom18's advertising-led video-on-demand platform that is available as an app for iOS, KaiOS ( JioPhone) an ...
, the production house
Viacom18 Studios
Viacom18 Studios (Also known as Paramount 18 Studios), a subsidiary of Viacom18 (a Paramount Networks EMEAA and Network18 joint venture) based in Mumbai, is one of the first studio model based motion picture & content production business in Ind ...
, the television networks of
Colors TV
Colors TV is an Indian general entertainment broadcast network owned by Viacom18. The network's programming consists of family dramas, comedies, youth-oriented reality shows, shows on crime and television films.
History
It was launched on 2 ...
,
Nickelodeon India
Nickelodeon (abbreviated as Nick) is an Indian children's pay television network based in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. It is the Indian equivalent to the original American Network and is owned by Viacom18, a joint venture between Paramount Globa ...
,
Comedy Central India
Comedy Central is an Indian pay television channel owned by Viacom18. The channel is geared for mature audiences and carries comedy programming in the form of both original and syndicated series, as well as stand-up comedy specials.
Despite t ...
,
VH1 India
VH1 India is an Indian subscription music television and pop culture channel. It was launched in 2005 as a result of a joint venture between MTV India and Zee-Turner, based on the American channel of the same name. It broadcasts shows like VH1 ...
,
MTV India
MTV India is an Indian pay television channel specialising in music, reality and youth culture programming. It was launched in 1996 as the Indian version of MTV and is owned by Viacom 18, a joint venture operation between MTV International owne ...
and the channel
History TV18
History TV18 (formerly known as The History Channel) is a television channel in India. It broadcasts infotainment and documentry shows. It is owned by a joint venture between A+E Networks, owner of the American History channel, and TV18, an Ind ...
.
Incorporated in 1996 by Geeta and Rakesh Gupta, the company was acquired by
Ritu Kapur
Ritu Kapur is an Indian media entrepreneur. She is the CEO of Quintillion Media, which jointly owns BloombergQuint with Bloomberg L.P. She is the co-founder of ''The Quint'', a web-based digital news site and was one of the founding members ...
and
Raghav Bahl
Raghav Bahl is an Indian businessman, a serial entrepreneur, and an investor best known for his past ownership of several television channels, including TV18 India. He was the Founding/Controlling shareholder & managing director of Network18 Gr ...
to be converted into a conglomerate holding company between 2003 and 2006. It oversaw one of the largest collections of media properties in India following its conversion but became encumbered with debt due to aggressive expansions. In 2012, the company entered into a debt agreement with
Reliance Industries
Reliance Industries Limited is an Indian multinational conglomerate company, headquartered in Mumbai. It has diverse businesses including energy, petrochemicals, natural gas, retail, telecommunications, mass media, and textiles. Reliance is ...
, through which it was granted a number of channels from the
ETV Network
ETV Network is a network of Telugu language news and entertainment satellite television channels in India. It is based in Hyderabad. It also had some non Telugu language satellite television channels. All non-Telugu language satellite televisi ...
. The agreement eventually enabled a
hostile takeover
In business, a takeover is the purchase of one company (the ''target'') by another (the ''acquirer'' or ''bidder''). In the UK, the term refers to the acquisition of a public company whose shares are listed on a stock exchange, in contrast to ...
of the company in 2014.
History
1996–2007: Acquisition and restructuring
SGA Finance and Management Services was incorporated on 16 February 1996,
as a
private limited company
A private limited company is any type of business entity in "private" ownership used in many jurisdictions, in contrast to a publicly listed company, with some differences from country to country. Examples include the '' LLC'' in the United Sta ...
by Geeta and Rakesh Gupta and acquired soon afterwards by Vidya Devi and Anil Jindal. The company had remained inactive without any clear prospects until it was later acquired by the promoters of Television Eighteen India Limited.
The news broadcasting company Television Eighteen (TEIL) founded by
Ritu Kapur
Ritu Kapur is an Indian media entrepreneur. She is the CEO of Quintillion Media, which jointly owns BloombergQuint with Bloomberg L.P. She is the co-founder of ''The Quint'', a web-based digital news site and was one of the founding members ...
and
Raghav Bahl
Raghav Bahl is an Indian businessman, a serial entrepreneur, and an investor best known for his past ownership of several television channels, including TV18 India. He was the Founding/Controlling shareholder & managing director of Network18 Gr ...
, became a
public limited company
A public limited company (legally abbreviated to PLC or plc) is a type of public company under United Kingdom company law, some Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth jurisdictions, and the Republic of Ireland. It is a limited liability company ...
in 1999 and its
initial public offering
An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment ...
(IPO) received an overwhelming response.
The investments through the IPO exceeded the target set by the company by a magnitude of over 50 times by the end of the year, raising in the process.
This decreased the promoters' stake in the company from 75% to 26.11% by 2002 causing complications. The company was in the middle of preparations to launch a Hindi business news channel but could no longer meet regulatory guidelines.
TEIL was in a joint venture with
CNBC
CNBC (formerly Consumer News and Business Channel) is an American basic cable business news channel. It provides business news programming on weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., Eastern Time, while broadcasting talk sho ...
since 1998,
and the news channel to be launched was called
CNBC Awaaz
CNBC Awaaz () is an Indian pay television Hindi business news channel, owned by CNBC and TV18 based in New Delhi
New Delhi (, , ''Naī Dillī'') is the capital of India and a part of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). ...
. The guidelines required the Indian promoters to have more than 51% stake in their company to be able to establish a new
uplink
In a telecommunications network, a link is a communication channel that connects two or more devices for the purpose of data transmission. The link may be a dedicated physical link or a virtual circuit that uses one or more physical links or shar ...
for broadcasting.
![CNBC Awaaz News Van](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/88/CNBC_Awaaz_News_Van.jpg)
In 2003, SGA Finance was acquired by Ritu Kapur and Raghav Bahl, in to order to launch the channel and Bahl became its managing director. The company raised through two batches of investments from the two promoters in March 2003 and in January 2004, and then incorporated a subsidiary called SGA News.
In the meantime, the government introduced a 26% foreign equity cap in the news broadcasting industry. In response to the new regulations the joint venture with CNBC was discarded and the partnership converted into a
content branding and franchise agreement.
In the financial year 2004–2005, TEIL invested in SGA News for
preferences stocks.
CNBC Awaaz was launched on 13 January 2005.
In the financial year 2005–2006, TEIL supplemented its initial investment with an additional in SGA News for
common stocks
Common stock is a form of corporate equity ownership, a type of security. The terms voting share and ordinary share are also used frequently outside of the United States. They are known as equity shares or ordinary shares in the UK and other Comm ...
. Following this, the boards of both the companies proposed a restructuring which received approval from the shareholders. The companies underwent several rounds of restructuring which came to a conclusion in November 2006. TEIL became a subsidiary of SGA Finance, the promoters gained a majority stake in TEIL, CNBC Awaaz was transferred to TEIL and shareholders of TEIL were accommodated with a stake in SGA Finance.
On 20 October 2006, SGA Finance was converted into a public limited company and re-incorporated as Network18 Fincap Limited.
During the restructuring process, TEIL had also founded a subsidiary called Global Broadcast News (GBN).
GBN had entered into a franchising partnership with
CNN Worldwide
Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. (alternatively known as Turner Entertainment Networks from 2019 until 2022) was an American television and media conglomerate. Founded by Ted Turner and based in Atlanta, Georgia, it merged with WarnerMedia, Tim ...
to launch the English general news channel
CNN IBN
CNN-News18 (originally CNN-IBN) is an Indian English-language news television channel founded by Raghav Bahl based in Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India. It is currently co-owned by Network18 Group and Warner Bros. Discovery. CNN provides internationa ...
in December 2005.
Bahl was able to convince several senior professionals working at the leading news broadcaster
NDTV
New Delhi Television Ltd is an Indian news media company focusing on broadcast and digital news publication. The company is considered to be a legacy brand that pioneered independent news broadcasting in India, and is credited for launching t ...
including their editor-in-chief
Rajdeep Sardesai
Rajdeep Sardesai (born 24 May 1965) is an Indian news anchor, reporter, journalist and author. He is a consulting editor and an anchor of India Today Television. He was the Editor-in-Chief of Global Broadcast News, that included CNN-IBN, IBN7 ...
and the chief financial officer (CFO) Sameer Manchanda to join the enterprise before its launch.
Haresh Chawla, the CEO of TEIL and Network18 was instrumental in both convincing Sardesai to quit and Bahl to take on NDTV as their competition.
Due to the restructuring, Network18 instead of TEIL was allotted the shares of GBN and by the end of the financial year 2006–2007, Network18 held both GBN and TEIL as its subsidiaries; GBN operated CNN IBN and TEIL operating all the business news channels along with the information websites ''
Moneycontrol
Network18 Media & Investments Limited, (formerly SGA Finance and Management Service and Network18 Fincap Limited) commonly referred to as the Network18 Group and sometimes as the Network18–Eenadu Group, is an Indian media conglomerate owned b ...
'' and ''News Wire''.
Network18 was converted into a public limited company in 2006, and listed on the
Bombay Stock Exchange
BSE Limited, also known as the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), is an Indian stock exchange. It is located on Dalal Street in Mumbai. Established in 1875 by cotton merchant Premchand Roychand, a Jain businessman, it is the oldest stock exchange in ...
(BSE) and the
National Stock Exchange (NSE) in 2007.
2007–2011: Expansion, consolidation and increasing debt
Global Broadcast News (GBN), the subsidiary operating CNN IBN became a publicly traded company in January 2007 and its IPO generated a successful response, similar to that of Television Eighteen India Limited (TEIL).
GBN was renamed as IBN18 Broadcast,
and on 1 December 2007, Network18 Fincap itself was renamed to Network18 Media & Investments.
Network18 began diversifying with cross media interests in 2008.
It had high liquidity and expanded rapidly, it started the film production house called Indian Film Company (IFC),
launched the shopping channel
Home Shop18,
and entered into an franchise agreement to launch the
Indian edition of the ''Forbes'' business magazine,
while IBN18 Broadcast entered into a joint venture with the
Marathi language
Marathi (; ''Marāṭhī'', ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language predominantly spoken by Marathi people in the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the official language of Maharashtra, and additional official language in the state o ...
newspaper ''
Lokmat
''Lokmat'' () is a Marathi language newspaper published in Maharashtra state. Founded in 1971 by Jawaharlal Darda, it is the largest read regional language newspaper in India with more than 18 million readers and the No. 1 Marathi newspaper i ...
'' to launch the Marathi news channel
IBN Lokmat, and began a joint venture with
ViacomCBS
Paramount Global (doing business as Paramount) is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate owned and operated by National Amusements (79.4%) and headquartered at One Astor Plaza in Midtown Manhattan, New York. I ...
to initiate the group's foray in mass media and general entertainment channels under
Viacom18
Viacom18 Media Private Limited is an Indian media and entertainment joint venture between TV18 and Paramount Global based in Mumbai. It was founded in 2007 and owns various channels, as well as content production studios in India.
History
In ...
.
Network18 registered losses in the financial years 2008–2009 and 2009–2010. Its investments had outstripped the profits generated by its operational assets. In addition, the group had existing debt obligations and requirements for providing
returns to its investors which resulted in net losses of and respectively. Viacom18 in particular was a drain on the company's funds. The financial statement of the company in 2009 had reported that it was retiring outstanding debt and raising funds through equity investments. In response to the financial challenges, the group began restructuring and consolidating its assets in the same year. IBN18 Broadcast was renamed to
TV18 Broadcast
TV18 Broadcast Limited (formerly Global Broadcast News and IBN18 Broadcast Limited) is an Indian entity belonging to Network18 Group based in Mumbai. TV18 owns and operates various national channels in separate partnerships with NBCUniversal ( ...
and Television Eighteen India Limited (TEIL) which operated the business news channels of the company was merged into it.
The digital media and publishing operations were transferred to the parent company Network18 under the divisions of
Web18 Software Services
Web18 (Web18 Software Services Limited) is the Internet and mobile arm of Network 18, an Indian media conglomerate. It has a variety of information and transactional services based on the Internet.
The TV18 group holds 85 per cent in Web18 Hold ...
and Network18 Publishing respectively.
In the financial year 2010–2011, Network18 registered a loss of , which was a considerable decrease from the previous two years and Bahl reportedly told the shareholders during the presentation of the annual report that "the best times are still ahead of us".
In 2010, Network18 had went on to announce a new joint venture
AETN18
Network18 Media & Investments Limited, (formerly SGA Finance and Management Service and Network18 Fincap Limited) commonly referred to as the Network18 Group and sometimes as the Network18–Eenadu Group, is an Indian media conglomerate owned b ...
with the American media company
A&E Networks
A&E Networks (stylized as A+E NETWORKS) is an American multinational broadcasting company that is a 50–50 joint venture between Hearst Communications and The Walt Disney Company through its General Entertainment Content division. The company o ...
to launch
History TV18
History TV18 (formerly known as The History Channel) is a television channel in India. It broadcasts infotainment and documentry shows. It is owned by a joint venture between A+E Networks, owner of the American History channel, and TV18, an Ind ...
, the Indian edition of
History channel
History (formerly The History Channel from January 1, 1995 to February 15, 2008, stylized as HISTORY) is an American pay television network and flagship channel owned by A&E Networks, a joint venture between Hearst Communications and the Disney ...
. The company had also entered into a distribution joint venture with the
Sun Network
Sun TV Network is an Indian mass media company headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. It is a part of Sun Group and is one of Asia's largest TV networks. Established on 14 April 1992 by Kalanithi Maran, it owns a variety of television c ...
called Sun18. It had 2 divisions named Sun18 North and Sun18 South, the former was managed by Network18 and the latter by the Sun Network. The joint venture was later restricted to
Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a States and union territories of India, state in southern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of India ...
and replaced by the TV18–Viacom18 distribution joint venture IndiaCast in 2012. The consolidation of assets was completed by 2011 but it alone could not mitigate the financial challenges.
Over the past years, the market had changed rapidly, the group was facing increased competition from other broadcasters,
and advertising revenue had decreased due to economic downturn.
2011–2014: Takeover by Reliance Industries
Network18 had made optimistic projections for years but after 2011, it came to face a possible financial collapse and loss of control for its managing director Raghav Bahl.
The group had accumulated an outstanding debt of over by September 2011.
Employees were convinced that the company had expanded too aggressively and the market could not support it. In search of assistance in the form of external financing, Bahl decided to begin talks with the multinational energy giant
Reliance Industries
Reliance Industries Limited is an Indian multinational conglomerate company, headquartered in Mumbai. It has diverse businesses including energy, petrochemicals, natural gas, retail, telecommunications, mass media, and textiles. Reliance is ...
.
In November 2011, the CEO, Haresh Chawla resigned despite having been one of the founders of the media conglomerate.
According to company insiders, he was persistently trying to convince Bahl to not enter into a debt agreement with
Mukesh Ambani
Mukesh Dhirubhai Ambani (born 19 April 1957) is an Indian billionaire businessman. He is the chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries Ltd. (RIL), a Fortune Global 500 company and India's most valuable company by market value. Acco ...
and instead raise funds by divesting part of the group's stake in the subsidiary Viacom18.
In a later interview, he had commented that his resignation was an easy decision as he did not want anything to do with the Ambanis. According to a senior editor at the group, the decision to enter the talks was made reluctantly, as "
ahlwas in a bind about entering a pact with the devil".
![Mukesh Ambani](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/69/Mukesh_Ambani.jpg)
On 3 January 2012, Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) and Network18 announced a partnership.
Reliance Industries set up a body called the Independent Media Trust (IMT) and infused funds into the company through a number of shell companies as part of a complex financial transaction.
was transferred to Network18 and TV18 Broadcast, half the amount to each respectively, of which Network18 received a net amount of due to its stake in TV18. The shell companies gained rights to
debentures
In corporate finance, a debenture is a medium- to long-term debt instrument used by large companies to borrow money, at a fixed rate of interest. The legal term "debenture" originally referred to a document that either creates a debt or acknowle ...
convertible to equity within 10 years.
RIL also forced Network18 to buy its stakeholding in
ETV Network
ETV Network is a network of Telugu language news and entertainment satellite television channels in India. It is based in Hyderabad. It also had some non Telugu language satellite television channels. All non-Telugu language satellite televisi ...
for a sum of without which the net sum would have been for a much smaller amount.
The purchase also included two regional broadcasters; Panorama and Prism.
The acquisition included most of the television broadcasting properties of the
Ramoji Group
Ramoji Group is an Indian conglomerate headed by Ramoji Rao and headquartered in Hyderabad, India. Its businesses cover television and newspaper media, film production, financial services, retail, education and hospitality. In 1996, one of it ...
. The group retained the rights to ETV brand, while Network18 acquired 100% shareholding of 5 general news channels, 50% shareholding of 5 general entertainment channels and 24.5% shareholding in 2 other channels. The entertainment channels were held by the joint venture of Viacom18.
One point of disagreement for Chawla had been in the valuation of ETV at when the company was worth only in March 2011.
The transaction was completed in 2013,
and turned Network18 into the largest group of media companies in India, surpassing
Star India
Disney Star Private Limited is an Indian media conglomerate and a wholly owned subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company India. It is headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra. Disney Star network runs more than 70 TV channels in eight languages, reac ...
owned by the billionaire media mogul
Rupert Murdoch
Keith Rupert Murdoch ( ; born 11 March 1931) is an Australian-born American business magnate. Through his company News Corp, he is the owner of hundreds of local, national, and international publishing outlets around the world, including ...
and
The Times Group
Bennett, Coleman and Company Limited, (abbreviated as B.C.C.L. and d/b/a The Times Group), is an Indian media conglomerate headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra. The company remains a family-owned business with Sahu Jain family owning a majority ...
owned by the
Sahu Jain family
The Sahu Jain family is an industrial family of India. They own Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. (commonly known as The Times Group), which owns ''The Times of India'', the most-circulated English newspaper in the world. The members of the extended ...
. The
broadband
In telecommunications, broadband is wide bandwidth data transmission which transports multiple signals at a wide range of frequencies and Internet traffic types, that enables messages to be sent simultaneously, used in fast internet connections. ...
subsidiary of RIL,
Infotel
Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited, doing business as Jio, is an Indian telecommunications company and a subsidiary of Jio Platforms, headquartered in Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. It operates a national LTE network with coverage across all 2 ...
signed a
memorandum of understanding with the group and gained preferential access to its content.
In the form of a passive investor, RIL had indirect control over the company,
and authority over its financial decisions. The executives retained operational control of the company.
On 12 November 2012, IMT passed a resolution which allowed two senior officials from RIL to be appointed as additional trustees and Bahl lost further control within the trust. IMT held the option of converting the debentures to equity which could turn RIL into the majority shareholder of Network18.
In 2013, Network18 had become debt free,
and RIL's investment had led to assumptions that it would not initiate any further cost cutting measures.
Viacom18 after being a drain on the network's finances for years had finished its long germination period and had entered into a period of exponential growth.
However, on 16 August 2013, the company carried out an unexpected large scale wage reduction and staff lay-offs which came to be known as "Black Friday" among the employees. In the news branches, the lay-offs included around 300 producers, journalists and other staff, who were fired in no recognisable pattern in terms of salary, seniority or branch.
There was ambiguity over severance packages and compensations and the human resources department was accompanied by executives of the RIL backed IMT in abrupt handing out of termination letters to employees without prior notice, who were then told to leave within 10 minutes. This further led to
job insecurity
Job security is the probability that an individual will keep their job; a job with a high level of security is such that a person with the job would have a small chance of losing it. Many factors threaten job security: globalization, outsourcing, ...
among employees, many of whom began applying for and were hired by competing news broadcasters in the following period.
In the months of November–December, the network's coverage of
Arvind Kejriwal
Arvind Kejriwal (Hindi: ɾʋin̪d̪ ked͡ʒɾiːʋaːl born 16 August 1968) is an Indian politician, former bureaucrat, and activist who is the 7th and current Chief Minister of Delhi since February 2015. Currently, he is the national conv ...
started to become a source of contention with RIL and Ambani.
Kejriwal was the head of the
India Against Corruption (IAC) movement and had made several allegations against various politicians and businessmen, including Mukesh Ambani.
His allegations against Ambani and RIL was over irregularities in pricing of
natural gas
Natural gas (also called fossil gas or simply gas) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane in addition to various smaller amounts of other higher alkanes. Low levels of trace gases like carbo ...
in the
Krishna Godavari Basin which received national media attention and was reported on by Network18 as well.
RIL denied the allegation and reacted by threatening to file a lawsuit against Kejriwal but without any effect. Following which, the energy giant reportedly attempted to pressurise Network18 into censoring any and all coverage of IAC and Kejriwal including in March 2014, in a direct communication between Ambani and Rajdeep Sardesai, the managing editor of CNN IBN and
IBN 7
News18 India is an Indian Media television channel owned by Network 18. It was launched in 2005 as Channel 7 by Jagran Prakashan Limited and acquired in 2006 by Network 18 and rebranded IBN7. In 2016 it took its current name.
In 2013, News18 ...
.
In the previous years, one allegation that had come up against Ambani was that he had bailed out
Ramoji Rao
Cherukuri Ramoji Rao (born 16 November 1936) is an Indian businessman, media entrepreneur, and film producer. He is head of the Ramoji Group which owns the world's largest film production facility Ramoji Film City, ''Eenadu'' newspaper, ETV Netw ...
in the Margdarsai chit fund scandal and in the process gained stake in Rao's ETV Network, the same company which RIL had forced Network18 to buy a stake in.
According to an anonymous insider present at a meeting between the executives of Network18 and RIL, the right-hand man of Ambani, Manoj Modi had threatened Bahl by stating "You are calling us a dacoit, you are shouting that we are crony capitalists. If that is so, then why did you come to us for money in the first place? Do you think you have a clean record?"
Around the same time, the network increasingly began leaning right wing and attempted to publicise
Narendra Modi
Narendra Damodardas Modi (; born 17 September 1950) is an Indian politician serving as the 14th and current Prime Minister of India since 2014. Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Parliament from ...
as the prospective prime ministerial candidate with feature pieces and continuous reporting.
The network dedicated more hours than any other broadcaster to Modi and disproportionately more compared to other candidates.
The executives of Network18 were eager to repay the loan to RIL and get rid of Ambani's influence over the company.
Reports have suggested that the network's coverage of Kejriwal became the trigger for the company to initiate a takeover.
RIL communicated its intention to Bahl, offering him the option of continuing as managing editor with a annual salary and gave him 3 days to make his decision. He rejected the offer and on 27 May 2014, announced in midst of a routine meeting with his board of directors that he was going to resign as RIL wanted to takeover and nothing could be done about it.
The announcement caused an exodus of employees from the company which included senior journalists and executives.
B. Sai Kumar (CEO) and Ajay Chacko (COO) resigned on 28 May 2014. From the following day, a stream of resignations started coming in while RIL released a press statement that it had gained complete control of the company, R. D. S. Bawa (CFO) and
Ritu Kapur
Ritu Kapur is an Indian media entrepreneur. She is the CEO of Quintillion Media, which jointly owns BloombergQuint with Bloomberg L.P. She is the co-founder of ''The Quint'', a web-based digital news site and was one of the founding members ...
(co-promoter and one of the directors) resigned on the same day. The legal
general counsel
A general counsel, also known as chief counsel or chief legal officer (CLO), is the chief in-house lawyer for a company or a governmental department.
In a company, the person holding the position typically reports directly to the CEO, and their ...
to the company, Kshipra Jatana resigned from her position but stayed on to oversee the transfer of ownership.
She was appointed as the manager of the company for the interim period since Bahl had resigned as well.
Bahl and Kapur received for RIL to acquire their remaining shares. The net valuation of the company was at , whereas the net cash flow for RIL stood at in the multi year transaction between 2011 and 2014 including those related to ETV. RIL had mitigated costs in this period through returns from the investments in the two companies and from selling the shares it had acquired in Network18's subsidiaries themselves. It was noted that due to the structure of the transaction, RIL had in effect partly financed its takeover by raising funds from the company's own subsidiaries such as TV18 Broadcast.
The takeover process was completed on 7 July 2014; IMT and its sole benefactor RIL became the new promoters group.
2014–Present: Reliance Industries era
Following the takeover, Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) reshuffled the management and board of directors of both Network18 and its subsidiary TV18 Broadcast.
The nominees of the RIL backed Independent Media Trust (IMT) joined the board of Network18.
Deepak Parekh
Deepak Parekh (born 18 October 1944) is an Indian businessman and the Chairman of Housing Development Finance Corporation, India's leading housing private development finance institution. It is based in Mumbai.
Education
Parekh completed his ...
, the chairman of
Housing Development Finance Corporation
Housing Development Finance Corporation Limited (HDFC) is an Indian private development finance institution based in Mumbai. It is a major housing finance provider in India. It also has a presence in banking, life and general insurance, ass ...
(HDFC) and
Adil Zainulbhai
Adil Zainulbhai is the chairman of Network18 Group, the mass media subsidiary of the conglomerate Reliance Industries. He is also the chairman of Quality Council of India (QCI) since 2014, and has been appointed as the chairman of the Capacity ...
were also inducted into the company as independent directors in the board.
While retaining the position of independent director at RIL and
Larsen & Toubro
Larsen & Toubro Ltd, commonly known as L&T, is an Indian multinational conglomerate company, with business interests in engineering, construction, manufacturing, technology, information technology and financial services, headquartered in Mumba ...
, and being the newly elected
Narendra Modi
Narendra Damodardas Modi (; born 17 September 1950) is an Indian politician serving as the 14th and current Prime Minister of India since 2014. Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Parliament from ...
government's appointment to the position of chairman of
Quality Council of India
The Quality Council of India (QCI) was set up as a public private partnership model on the model existing in Netherlands at the time, where although the NAB was not owned by the government, yet it was supported by it and was exceedingly used as a ...
(QCI),
Zainulbhai was appointed by RIL to the position of chairman of the board.
Commentators raised concerns that the editorial integrity of the network may not be preserved under the new management. The channels of the network had stopped all coverage of Kejriwal and the new
Aam Aadmi Party
The Aam Aadmi Party (; AAP) is a political party in India, as one of the national political parties. The AAP was founded in November 2012 by Arvind Kejriwal and his then-companions following the 2011 Indian anti-corruption movement, popular ...
who had levied corruption accusations at RIL. The editor-in-chief of the flagship general news channel CNN IBN, resigned within a week of the takeover with the reason that the management was interfering in editorial decision making and dictating what could or could not be aired.
A. P. Parigi, the former managing director and CEO of
Entertainment Network India Limited
Entertainment Network India Limited (ENIL) () is a subsidiary of Times Infotainment Media Limited, the holding company promoted by Bennett, Coleman & Company Limited- the flagship company of the Times of India Group, was incorporated in 1999.
Ti ...
(
The Times Group
Bennett, Coleman and Company Limited, (abbreviated as B.C.C.L. and d/b/a The Times Group), is an Indian media conglomerate headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra. The company remains a family-owned business with Sahu Jain family owning a majority ...
subsidiary operating
Radio Mirchi
Radio Mirchi (also known as 98.3 Mirchi) is a nationwide network of private FM radio stations in India. It is owned by the ENIL, EntertainmentNetwork India Ltd (ENIL), which is one of the subsidiaries of The Times Group. ''Mirchi'' is Hindi f ...
), was recruited by RIL and appointed as the new CEO of Network18 on 29 January 2015.
Parigi resigned as CEO and was moved to an advisory role in the company on 1 October.
Rahul Joshi replaced Parigi as the new CEO and was made the
editor-in-chief
An editor-in-chief (EIC), also known as lead editor or chief editor, is a publication's editorial leader who has final responsibility for its operations and policies.
The highest-ranking editor of a publication may also be titled editor, managing ...
of the group.
Joshi was the editorial director of ''
The Economic Times
''The Economic Times'' is an Indian English-language business-focused daily newspaper. It is owned by The Times Group. ''The Economic Times'' began publication in 1961. As of 2012, it is the world's second-most widely read English-language bus ...
'', a financial newspaper published by The Times Group before he had resigned from the company to join Network18 in August 2015.
The editorial departments were unified with the operational and commercial divisions of the company, the chairman Zainulbhai stated that Pairigi had helped stabilise the operations and that Joshi would now run the company with an "ownership mindset".
The acquisition of the company by RIL, the largest conglomerate in India with deep interests in the
energy sector
The energy industry is the totality of all of the industries involved in the production and sale of energy, including fuel extraction, manufacturing, refining and distribution. Modern society consumes large amounts of fuel, and the energy indust ...
, was considered to be a part of a trend of growing
commodification
Within a capitalist economic system, commodification is the transformation of things such as goods, services, ideas, nature, personal information, people or animals into objects of trade or commodities.For animals"United Nations Commodity Trad ...
of information, detrimental to the treatment of journalism as a
public service
A public service is any service intended to address specific needs pertaining to the aggregate members of a community. Public services are available to people within a government jurisdiction as provided directly through public sector agencies ...
. It increased the concentration of cross media ownership in the hands of a small group of large corporate actors in a market that was already
oligopolistic
An oligopoly (from Greek ὀλίγος, ''oligos'' "few" and πωλεῖν, ''polein'' "to sell") is a market structure in which a market or industry is dominated by a small number of large sellers or producers. Oligopolies often result fro ...
and reduced the diversity of information disseminating outlets. Control over the news organisation, had strengthened RIL's ability to influence the formation of
public opinion
Public opinion is the collective opinion on a specific topic or voting intention relevant to a society. It is the people's views on matters affecting them.
Etymology
The term "public opinion" was derived from the French ', which was first use ...
and as a result the
political economy
Political economy is the study of how Macroeconomics, economic systems (e.g. Marketplace, markets and Economy, national economies) and Politics, political systems (e.g. law, Institution, institutions, government) are linked. Widely studied ph ...
of the country, and also decreased space for reporting which could be detrimental to the energy giant's interests and public relations.
Between 2014 and 2016, Network18 attempted to expand into regional markets of the news broadcasting sector with a spate of new channels, which was seen with apprehension among media observers. The expansion occurred as part of RIL's investment in the rollout of its
4G data business.
RIL had stated during the takeover that the acquisition would help in differentiating their 4G business through
corporate synergy
Corporate synergy refers to a financial benefit that a corporation expects to realize when it merges with or acquires another corporation. Corporate synergy occurs when corporations interact congruently with one another, creating additional value. ...
.
Infotel, the broadband subsidiary of RIL had been reincorporated as
Reliance Jio Infocomm
Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited, doing business as Jio, is an Indian telecommunications company and a subsidiary of Jio Platforms, headquartered in Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. It operates a national LTE network with coverage across all ...
and was in the process of launching its data transfer business.
It was suggested that the synergy would alleviate stresses posed by unstable market conditions in the news broadcast industry,
while Jio would provide exclusive content from Network18 productions to increase traffic towards itself and expand its customer base. The synergy was however not adopted, according to analysts it was not financially beneficial to restrict content to only Jio customers and that Jio itself could be more profitable by being a
content aggregator at competitive rates and still have a cost advantage due to its scale.
In 2016, Network18 undertook a rebranding operation, the IBN brand was phased out and replaced with News18, channels such as CNN IBN renamed to
CNN-News18
CNN-News18 (originally CNN-IBN) is an Indian English-language news television channel founded by Raghav Bahl based in Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India. It is currently co-owned by Network18 Group and Warner Bros. Discovery. CNN provides internationa ...
, and IBN7 renamed to
News18 India
News18 India is an Indian Media television channel owned by Network 18. It was launched in 2005 as Channel 7 by Jagran Prakashan Limited and acquired in 2006 by Network 18 and rebranded IBN7. In 2016 it took its current name.
In 2013, News18 ...
, among others. Earlier in December 2015,
CNN Worldwide
Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. (alternatively known as Turner Entertainment Networks from 2019 until 2022) was an American television and media conglomerate. Founded by Ted Turner and based in Atlanta, Georgia, it merged with WarnerMedia, Tim ...
had finalised its decision to renew the franchise licensing agreement with Network18, after a period of uncertainty.
In May 2018, ''
Cobrapost
Cobrapost is a non-profit Indian news website that was founded in 2005 by Aniruddha Bahal – the co-founder of Tehelka. It is particularly known for its undercover investigative journalism.
Description
According to Kalyani Chadha, Cobrapost ...
'' released a set of footages from a sting operation into several media organisations.
Network18 was one of the organisations featured,
and the sting displayed positive responses from senior marketing executives of the company to a proposition of entering into an agreement for undisclosed
paid news
An advertorial is an advertisement in the form of editorial content. The term "advertorial" is a blend (see portmanteau) of the words "advertisement" and "editorial." Merriam-Webster dates the origin of the word to 1946.
In printed publications, t ...
to promote
Hindutva
Hindutva () is the predominant form of Hindu nationalism in India. The term was formulated as a political ideology by Vinayak Damodar Savarkar in 1923. It is used by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), the ...
political propaganda.
The executives included sales and marketing head of the group as well as the sales head of the ETV Network with the latter remarking that they were already pushing the ideology and would increase their efforts by 80–90% following the agreement.
The implications of the sting raised questions about
media independence
Media independence is the absence of external control and influence on an institution or individual working in the media. It is a measure of its capacity to "make decisions and act according to its own logic," and distinguishes independent media ...
in India,
and was described as a part of a phenomenon where the separation of editorial and marketing departments of news organisations are increasingly blurred due to advertisement business models.
Several of the media houses denied the allegation put forth by the sting,
Network18 did not respond to it.
On 9 July 2018, Joshi was elevated to the position of managing director while retaining the designations of CEO and group editor-in-chief. Kshipra Jatana who had officially held the designation of managing director since Bahl's resgination was removed from the position.
In 2019, Network18 initiated heavy cost cutting measures, increments and new hires were frozen while budgets for employing freelancers were greatly reduced. Newsrooms were demoralised as uncertainty grew among employees and outlets such as ''
Firstpost
''Firstpost'' is an Indian online news and media website. The site is a part of the Network 18 media conglomerate owned by Reliance Industries, which also runs CNN-News18 and CNBC-TV18.
The ''Network 18'' group was originally owned by Raghav ...
'' which relied heavily on freelancers were severely affected in their operations. Economic slowdown had reduced advertisement revenues and the regional channels of the company had not been successful in their respective markets.
The group had registered losses in the financial years of 2016–2017 and 2017–2018.
On 21 November 2019, RIL entered into talks with the Japanese multinational media conglomerate
Sony Group
, commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...
for consideration over a number of potential deal structures including merger options, schemes for acquisition of a stake in Network18 or the acquisition of the entertainment assets of the company, among others.
On 28 November,
Bloomberg Bloomberg may refer to:
People
* Daniel J. Bloomberg (1905–1984), audio engineer
* Georgina Bloomberg (born 1983), professional equestrian
* Michael Bloomberg (born 1942), American businessman and founder of Bloomberg L.P.; politician and ma ...
broke the news that Ambani was also in talks with The Times Group to potentially sell off the entire media conglomerate as it was suffering from losses. In response to the report, RIL released a statement describing it as "false and malicious".
The Times Group denied it but with an addendum that "
hey
Hey or Hey! may refer to:
Music
* Hey (band), a Polish rock band
Albums
* ''Hey'' (Andreas Bourani album) or the title song (see below), 2014
* ''Hey!'' (Julio Iglesias album) or the title song, 1980
* ''Hey!'' (Jullie album) or the title s ...
will explore all strategic options as they present". In the following period, Network18's business news website ''
Moneycontrol
Network18 Media & Investments Limited, (formerly SGA Finance and Management Service and Network18 Fincap Limited) commonly referred to as the Network18 Group and sometimes as the Network18–Eenadu Group, is an Indian media conglomerate owned b ...
'' published an article which claimed that the newly founded joint venture,
BloombergQuint
BQ Prime, formerly BloombergQuint, is an Indian business and financial news organization founded as a joint venture of Bloomberg News and Quintillion Media. Its main content is based on the Indian economy, international finance, corporate law ...
was on the verge of collapse.
The article was published 5 days after Bloomberg's report and was described as a retaliatory piece.
In February 2020, RIL announced that it would consolidate its distribution and media businesses. The subsidiary TV18 Broadcast would be merged with Network18, which would acquire the cable distribution companies
DEN Networks
DEN Networks Limited is a cable television distribution company in India. It is owned by Sameer Manchanda and was acquired by Reliance Industries in 2018 along with Hathway. In 2003, it stood as one of the three major cable distributors in India ...
and
Hathway Cable & Datacom as two
wholly owned
A subsidiary, subsidiary company or daughter company is a company owned or controlled by another company, which is called the parent company or holding company. Two or more subsidiaries that either belong to the same parent company or having a s ...
subsidiaries,
RIL held the two companies through an earlier acquisition in October 2018. The merger would have converted the Network18 into an integrated media and distribution company.
The shareholding of the RIL in Network18 was projected to be reduced to 64% from 75% upon conclusion of the transactions in the merger operations.
According to some analysts, the consolidation would streamline the corporate structure of the company and make it a more attractive option for strategic investors, while others stated that it decreased the likelihood of an agreement with Sony due to its key interest, the entertainment assets of Network18 becoming closely associated with the news operations, where there were restrictions over foreign ownership.
In April 2020, the MD and CEO of Viacom18, Shudhanshu Vats resigned and Joshi took over his position as an additional charge. The talks with Sony came to a finalised decision for a merger between Viacom18 and
Sony Pictures Networks India
Culver Max Entertainment Private Limited, doing business as Sony Pictures Networks India (SPN or SPNI), is an Indian media conglomerate owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment.
Culver Max Entertainment manages and operates 26 television channels, ...
in July. The merger was scheduled to be completed by the end of August, Sony would obtain 74% stake leaving Viacom18 with 26% stake in the merged entity; Network18 and ViacomCBS would have around 13% in it respectively. The plans for the merger was abandoned in October. The implementation of the consolidation with the distribution companies was itself delayed and eventually cancelled in April 2021.
In October 2020, TV18 Broadcast reported an 148.2% increase in profit margins during the
COVID-19 pandemic in India
The COVID-19 pandemic in India is a part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 () caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (). As of , according to Indian government figures, India has the second-highest n ...
and the company attributed it to "proactive measures on cost-control". In a
Right to Information
The Right to Information (RTI) is an act of the Parliament of India which sets out the rules and procedures regarding citizens' right to information. It replaced the former Freedom of information act of 2002 (India), Freedom of Information Act ...
(RTI) request response in June 2021, data released by the
Uttar Pradesh government
The Government of Uttar Pradesh (ISO: Uttar Pradesh Sarkār; often abbreviated as GoUP) is the subnational government of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh with the governor as its appointed constitutional head of the state by the President of I ...
showed that the government's spending on television advertisements was at between April 2020 and May 2021 with Network18 as its biggest beneficiary. Promotion of the
Atmanirbhar Bharat
Atmanirbhar Bharat (Devanagari: ) which translates to 'self-reliant India', is a phrase the Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi and his government used and popularised in relation to the country's economic development plans. The phrase is an ...
campaign constituted a major portion of the spending and was made in the initial part of the year. Umashankar Dube, a journalist who had filed the RTI request had raised questions seeking answers to why the spending was made on television advertisements and not on relief efforts in midst of the pandemic but the Uttar Pradesh government's additional chief secretary of information refused to respond to queries on advertisement spending.
Corporate affairs
Ownership
* The group was acquired by
Mukesh Ambani
Mukesh Dhirubhai Ambani (born 19 April 1957) is an Indian billionaire businessman. He is the chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries Ltd. (RIL), a Fortune Global 500 company and India's most valuable company by market value. Acco ...
led conglomerate
Reliance Industries
Reliance Industries Limited is an Indian multinational conglomerate company, headquartered in Mumbai. It has diverse businesses including energy, petrochemicals, natural gas, retail, telecommunications, mass media, and textiles. Reliance is ...
in 2014. The acquisition occurred by maneuvering a complex deal through the Independent Media Trust (IMT), set up by Reliance Industries to issue a loan for the debt encumbered Network18 in 2012.
It resulted in Reliance receiving 78% of the shareholding,
and as of 2019, the conglomerate holds 73.16% of the shares.
*Teesta Retail is a
private limited company
A private limited company is any type of business entity in "private" ownership used in many jurisdictions, in contrast to a publicly listed company, with some differences from country to country. Examples include the '' LLC'' in the United Sta ...
which holds 1.85% shareholding of the group.
It is an arm of Reliance Industries Investments and Holdings and is listed in the promoters group shareholders of Network18. The ownership of Teesta Retail is held by ten shell companies registered at the same address and with Reliance Industries domain names for their websites. The ten companies have listed directors of whom seven appear across all of them, who are also directors at various Reliance subsidiaries.
*Network18 is a
public limited company
A public limited company (legally abbreviated to PLC or plc) is a type of public company under United Kingdom company law, some Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth jurisdictions, and the Republic of Ireland. It is a limited liability company ...
and the public holdings constitutes around 25% of its shareholdings. Among major individual shareholders was the
Chief Financial Officer
The chief financial officer (CFO) is an officer of a company or organization that is assigned the primary responsibility for managing the company's finances, including financial planning, management of financial risks, record-keeping, and financ ...
(CFO) of Network18, Hariharan Mahadevan who held 1.11% of the shares as a part of the public in 2019.
Management
Ritu Kapur
Ritu Kapur is an Indian media entrepreneur. She is the CEO of Quintillion Media, which jointly owns BloombergQuint with Bloomberg L.P. She is the co-founder of ''The Quint'', a web-based digital news site and was one of the founding members ...
was the first director of the company after the resignation of the Jindals and was followed by
Raghav Bahl
Raghav Bahl is an Indian businessman, a serial entrepreneur, and an investor best known for his past ownership of several television channels, including TV18 India. He was the Founding/Controlling shareholder & managing director of Network18 Gr ...
,
who was the managing director of the company between 2003 and 2014.
Haresh Chawla is considered to be the founding CEO of the company. He was appointed as the CEO of
TV18
TV18 Broadcast Limited (formerly Global Broadcast News and IBN18 Broadcast Limited) is an Indian entity belonging to Network18 Group based in Mumbai. TV18 owns and operates various national channels in separate partnerships with NBCUniversal ( ...
in 1999, having formerly worked at
Times Music
Times Music, a division of The Times Group, is an Indian record label and music publisher. Headquartered in Mumbai, Times Music started operations in 1998 and has a catalogue of more than 60,000 tracks in all languages and genres. Times Music ...
and
Amitabh Bachchan Corporation
Amitabh Bachchan Corporation Ltd. is an Indian entertainment company which is owned by Amitabh Bachchan. It was founded in 1996, it did event-management, film production and distribution work. During 1999 it emerged as fiasco for Amitabh Bachc ...
.
Chawla became the first CEO of Network18 after it was acquired and converted into the holding company of TV18.
He resigned from the company in November 2011 before Network18 entered into a deal with Reliance Industries, publicly stating that he wanted nothing to with the
Ambanis.
According to Raghav Bahl, the entire credit for enabling Network18 to establish a diverse variety of partnerships with the likes of
CNN Worldwide
Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. (alternatively known as Turner Entertainment Networks from 2019 until 2022) was an American television and media conglomerate. Founded by Ted Turner and based in Atlanta, Georgia, it merged with WarnerMedia, Tim ...
,
CNBC
CNBC (formerly Consumer News and Business Channel) is an American basic cable business news channel. It provides business news programming on weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., Eastern Time, while broadcasting talk sho ...
,
Forbes
''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also re ...
,
Viacom Viacom, an abbreviation of Video and Audio Communications, may refer to:
* Viacom (1952–2006), a former American media conglomerate
* Viacom (2005–2019), a former company spun off from the original Viacom
* Viacom18, a joint venture between Par ...
and
History Channel
History (formerly The History Channel from January 1, 1995 to February 15, 2008, stylized as HISTORY) is an American pay television network and flagship channel owned by A&E Networks, a joint venture between Hearst Communications and the Disney ...
belonged to Chawla.
The COO,
B. Sai Kumar succeeded Chawla as the CEO of Network18, and resigned before the takeover of the company by Reliance.
One of the directors at Reliance Industries and the
Prime Minister of India
The prime minister of India (IAST: ) is the head of government of the Republic of India. Executive authority is vested in the prime minister and their chosen Council of Ministers, despite the president of India being the nominal head of the ...
's appointment to the
Quality Council of India
The Quality Council of India (QCI) was set up as a public private partnership model on the model existing in Netherlands at the time, where although the NAB was not owned by the government, yet it was supported by it and was exceedingly used as a ...
,
Adil Zainulbhai
Adil Zainulbhai is the chairman of Network18 Group, the mass media subsidiary of the conglomerate Reliance Industries. He is also the chairman of Quality Council of India (QCI) since 2014, and has been appointed as the chairman of the Capacity ...
became the chairman of the board of directors of the company following the takeover.
Kshipra Jatana was the
general counsel
A general counsel, also known as chief counsel or chief legal officer (CLO), is the chief in-house lawyer for a company or a governmental department.
In a company, the person holding the position typically reports directly to the CEO, and their ...
at the group and had resigned during the takeover. She remained associated with the company to oversee the transition,
and became the manager in the interim period.
A. P. Parigi was appointed as the new CEO of the company after Sai Kumar's exit and held the position until he was moved to an advisory position by Reliance Industries in October 2015.
Rahul Joshi, the editorial director at ''
The Economic Times
''The Economic Times'' is an Indian English-language business-focused daily newspaper. It is owned by The Times Group. ''The Economic Times'' began publication in 1961. As of 2012, it is the world's second-most widely read English-language bus ...
'' was recruited and appointed as both the CEO and editor-in-chief of the entire group following the takeover.
In 2018, Joshi was elevated to the position of managing director by the board and Jatana resigned from her position.
Operating divisions and subsidiaries
Broadcast subsidiary
TV18 Broadcast is the broadcasting subsidiary of Network18.
The company owns a 51.16% stake in the subsidiary as of 2019, while the rest of the shareholding is divided between various Reliance Industries properties and shareholdings of individual members of the public.
It operates 2 national general news channels and 14 regional general news channels in several languages under the brand of News18,
including the news channels which were acquired by the group from the
ETV Network
ETV Network is a network of Telugu language news and entertainment satellite television channels in India. It is based in Hyderabad. It also had some non Telugu language satellite television channels. All non-Telugu language satellite televisi ...
in 2012–2014.
The general news channel
CNN-News18
CNN-News18 (originally CNN-IBN) is an Indian English-language news television channel founded by Raghav Bahl based in Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India. It is currently co-owned by Network18 Group and Warner Bros. Discovery. CNN provides internationa ...
(English) is operated by TV18 for which Network18 has a brand and content licensing agreement with
CNN Worldwide
Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. (alternatively known as Turner Entertainment Networks from 2019 until 2022) was an American television and media conglomerate. Founded by Ted Turner and based in Atlanta, Georgia, it merged with WarnerMedia, Tim ...
.
The subsidiary also operates the business news channels of
CNBC TV18
CNBC TV18 is an Indian pay television business and financial news channel owned by NBCUniversal and TV18.
CNBC TV18 Prime HD
Having launched on 26 October 2011, this is CNBC TV18's premium service and the first business channel in India t ...
(English),
CNBC Awaaz
CNBC Awaaz () is an Indian pay television Hindi business news channel, owned by CNBC and TV18 based in New Delhi
New Delhi (, , ''Naī Dillī'') is the capital of India and a part of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). ...
(Hindi) and
CNBC Bajar
CNBC (formerly Consumer News and Business Channel) is an American basic cable business news channel. It provides business news programming on weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., Eastern Time, while broadcasting talk show ...
(Gujarati) for which the group has a franchise licensing agreement with
NBCUniversal
NBCUniversal Media, LLC is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate corporation owned by Comcast and headquartered at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, United States.
NBCUniversal is primari ...
, the owner of
CNBC
CNBC (formerly Consumer News and Business Channel) is an American basic cable business news channel. It provides business news programming on weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., Eastern Time, while broadcasting talk sho ...
.
Joint ventures
TV18 provides
mass media
Mass media refers to a diverse array of media technologies that reach a large audience via mass communication. The technologies through which this communication takes place include a variety of outlets.
Broadcast media transmit information ...
services and
general entertainment
Entertainment is a form of activity that holds the attention and interest of an audience or gives pleasure and delight. It can be an idea or a task, but is more likely to be one of the activities or events that have developed over thousand ...
channels through two joint ventures, namely
Viacom18 Media Limited and
AETN18 Media Limited.
The Marathi general news channel
News18 Lokmat
News18Lokmat is a 24-hour Marathi language, Marathi-language news channel based in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. It is a joint venture between Network 18 and Lokmat Group the publisher of the newspaper Lokmat.
The channel was launched as IBN Lo ...
is also managed through a joint venture with the
Marathi language
Marathi (; ''Marāṭhī'', ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language predominantly spoken by Marathi people in the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the official language of Maharashtra, and additional official language in the state o ...
daily newspaper ''
Lokmat
''Lokmat'' () is a Marathi language newspaper published in Maharashtra state. Founded in 1971 by Jawaharlal Darda, it is the largest read regional language newspaper in India with more than 18 million readers and the No. 1 Marathi newspaper i ...
''.
Viacom18 Media is a mass media
joint venture
A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acces ...
between TV18 Broadcast and
ViacomCBS
Paramount Global (doing business as Paramount) is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate owned and operated by National Amusements (79.4%) and headquartered at One Astor Plaza in Midtown Manhattan, New York. I ...
with 51% and 49% stake respectively. It is parent company of 46 mass media channels in 8 languages which include the franchises of Colors,
MTV
MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...
,
Nickelodeon
Nickelodeon (often shortened to Nick) is an American pay television television channel, channel which launched on April 1, 1979, as the first cable channel for children. It is run by Paramount Global through its List of assets owned by Param ...
,
VH1
VH1 (originally an initialism of Video Hits One) is an American basic cable television network based in New York City and owned by Paramount Global. It was created by Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment, at the time a division of Warner Commun ...
and
Comedy Central
Comedy Central is an American basic cable channel owned by Paramount Global through its network division's MTV Entertainment Group unit, based in Manhattan. The channel is geared towards young adults aged 18–34 and carries comedy programming ...
. The Colors network is an umbrella of a number of general entertainment channels in various Indian languages,
and includes two Hindi language mass entertainment channels
Colors TV
Colors TV is an Indian general entertainment broadcast network owned by Viacom18. The network's programming consists of family dramas, comedies, youth-oriented reality shows, shows on crime and television films.
History
It was launched on 2 ...
and
Colors Rishtey
Colors Rishtey is an Indian pay general entertainment television channel that mainly broadcasts re-runs of programming from Colors TV and also airs shows from NDTV Imagine & DD National. International Feeds Of ‘Colors Rishtey’ Also Air Dub ...
. The ETV entertainment channels and the channels of Prism which were acquired by the group are rebranded as channels under the Colors franchise.
The Indian editions of
VH1
VH1 (originally an initialism of Video Hits One) is an American basic cable television network based in New York City and owned by Paramount Global. It was created by Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment, at the time a division of Warner Commun ...
,
MTV
MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...
and
Comedy Central
Comedy Central is an American basic cable channel owned by Paramount Global through its network division's MTV Entertainment Group unit, based in Manhattan. The channel is geared towards young adults aged 18–34 and carries comedy programming ...
, and the
children's channels of
Nickelodeon
Nickelodeon (often shortened to Nick) is an American pay television television channel, channel which launched on April 1, 1979, as the first cable channel for children. It is run by Paramount Global through its List of assets owned by Param ...
(Indian edition),
Nick Jr.
Nick Jr. (known on-air as the Nick Jr. Channel) is an American pay television channel spun off from Nickelodeon's long-running programming block of the same name. It is run by Paramount Global through its networks division's Kids and Family Gr ...
and
Nickelodeon Sonic
Nickelodeon Sonic (formerly Sonic-Nickelodeon) is an Indian children's pay television channel operated by Viacom18 as part of the Nickelodeon India network.
After on the air, Sonic became the fourth most watched channel across all genres with ...
are managed by Viacom18. The franchise of
Coke Studio India
Coke Studio India, officially titled Coke Studio @ MTV is an Indian television programme, which features live studio-recorded music performances by various artists. Coke Studio combines myriad musical influences, from Hindustani, Carnatic an ...
is owned and operated by the company through MTV India.
Viacom18 Digital Ventures is a division of Viacom18 that operates the advertisement based
OTT platform
An over-the-top (OTT) media service is a Media (communications), media service offered Direct-to-consumer, directly to viewers via the Internet. OTT bypasses Cable television, cable, broadcast television, broadcast, and satellite television platf ...
called
Voot
Voot is an Indian subscription video on-demand and over-the-top streaming service, owned by Viacom18. Launched in March 2016, it is Viacom18's advertising-led video-on-demand platform that is available as an app for iOS, KaiOS ( JioPhone) an ...
and two subscription based OTT platforms, namely the premium edition Voot Select and the children's edition Voot Kids. The joint venture also owns the production studio called
Viacom18 Motion Pictures
Viacom18 Studios (Also known as Paramount 18 Studios), a subsidiary of Viacom18 (a Paramount Networks EMEAA and Network18 joint venture) based in Mumbai, is one of the first studio model based motion picture & content production business in Ind ...
which has produced critically acclaimed films such as the ''
Gangs of Wasseypur
''Gangs of Wasseypur'' is a 2012 Indian Hindi-language two-part crime film produced and directed by Anurag Kashyap, and written by Kashyap and Zeishan Quadri. Centered on the coal mafia (Mafia Raj) of Dhanbad, and the underlying power struggle ...
'' (2012), ''
Kahaani
''Kahaani'' (; ) is a 2012 Indian Hindi-language thriller film co-written, co-produced and directed by Sujoy Ghosh. It stars Vidya Balan as Vidya Bagchi, a pregnant woman looking for her missing husband in Kolkata during the festival of Durga ...
'' (2012) and
''Queen'' (2014).
The studio has an additional digital production division called Tipping Point which produces content for Voot and
JioCinema
JioCinema is an Indian subscription video on-demand and over-the-top streaming service, owned by Viacom 18, a subsidiary of TV18. Launched on 5 September 2016, JioCinema's content library includes films, television shows, web series, music vi ...
, the OTT platform of
Reliance Jio
Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited, doing business as Jio, is an Indian telecommunications company and a subsidiary of Jio Platforms, headquartered in Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. It operates a national LTE network with coverage across all 2 ...
. Among other divisions of Viacom18 are Integrated Network Solutions (INS) which develops
intellectual properties
Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, cop ...
and Viacom18 Consumer Products which manages the
licensing
A license (or licence) is an official permission or permit to do, use, or own something (as well as the document of that permission or permit).
A license is granted by a party (licensor) to another party (licensee) as an element of an agreeme ...
business of the venture.
AETN18 Media is a joint venture between TV18 Broadcast and
A&E Networks
A&E Networks (stylized as A+E NETWORKS) is an American multinational broadcasting company that is a 50–50 joint venture between Hearst Communications and The Walt Disney Company through its General Entertainment Content division. The company o ...
, the owner of the
History channel
History (formerly The History Channel from January 1, 1995 to February 15, 2008, stylized as HISTORY) is an American pay television network and flagship channel owned by A&E Networks, a joint venture between Hearst Communications and the Disney ...
franchise.
TV18 and A&E Networks respectively have 51% and 49% stake in the joint venture. AETN18 owns and operates the infotainment channel of
History TV18
History TV18 (formerly known as The History Channel) is a television channel in India. It broadcasts infotainment and documentry shows. It is owned by a joint venture between A+E Networks, owner of the American History channel, and TV18, an Ind ...
,
and formerly operated the lifestyle channels of
FYI TV18
FYI (stylized as fyi,) is an American basic cable channel owned by A&E Networks, a joint venture between the Disney Media Networks subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company and Hearst Communications (each owns 50%). The network features lifestyle ...
which was shut down in 2020.
IndiaCast Media, the distribution arm of the Network18 Group is a 50:50 joint venture between Viacom18 Media and TV18 Broadcast, which provides domestic and international distribution services for the company. TV18 as a result of the equity division has a cumulative 75% stake in the distribution venture. IndiaCast was also in a distribution joint venture with DisneyUTV in which TV18 retained 56% stake. The joint venture with DisneyUTV was called IndiaCast UTV; it was founded in 2013, converted into a distribution deal due to introduction of
TRAI TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) is a statutory body set up by the Government of India.
TRAI or Trai may also refer to:
People
Trai is a masculine given name which has its root in Middle English. Notable people with the name include:
...
regulations in the following year and the distribution deal eventually cancelled in 2015.
Digital and publishing divisions
Network18 Publishing is the
publishing house
Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed works, such as books, newsp ...
of the group and publishes a number of
business directories, and
B2C
Direct-to-consumer (DTC) or business-to-consumer (B2C) is the business model of selling products directly to customers and thereby bypassing any third-party retailers, wholesalers, or any other middlemen. Direct-to-consumer sales are usually tr ...
and
B2B magazines.
The division publishes magazines such as ''
Better Interiors
''Better Interiors'' is an Indian monthly interior design magazine.
Background
The magazine was established by Infomedia India on 5 May 2005. Infomedia India was taken over by Indian media and entertainment company Network 18.
Sister publicati ...
'' and ''
Better Photography
''Better Photography'' is an Indian monthly photography
Photography is the art, application, and practice of creating durable images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sens ...
'' and the magazines of ''
Overdrive
Overdrive may refer to:
Organizations
* OverDrive, Inc., a digital distributor of entertainment media
** OverDrive Media Console, a media player developed by OverDrive, Inc.
* Overdrive PC, a subsidiary of Velocity Micro
Technology
* Overdrive ...
'' and ''
Forbes India
''Forbes India'' is the Indian edition of ''Forbes'' which is managed by Reliance Industries-owned media conglomerate, Network 18.
History and profile
Since its founding in 2008, ''Forbes India'' has achieved a circulation of 50,000 copies and ma ...
'' as part of a licensing agreement with
OverDrive, Inc.
OverDrive, Inc. is a digital distributor of eBooks, audiobooks, online magazines and streaming video titles. The company provides digital rights management and download fulfillment services for publishers, libraries, schools, corporations and b ...
and
Forbes Inc.
''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also re ...
respectively''.''
The digital media division of the group is called
Web18 Software Services
Web18 (Web18 Software Services Limited) is the Internet and mobile arm of Network 18, an Indian media conglomerate. It has a variety of information and transactional services based on the Internet.
The TV18 group holds 85 per cent in Web18 Hold ...
.
It operates the digital news outlets of Network18 such as the websites of News18.com (formerly IBNLive.com) and ''
Firstpost
''Firstpost'' is an Indian online news and media website. The site is a part of the Network 18 media conglomerate owned by Reliance Industries, which also runs CNN-News18 and CNBC-TV18.
The ''Network 18'' group was originally owned by Raghav ...
'', and mobile apps and social media assets of News18.
The editorial management of ''Firstpost'' is merged with that of the ''Forbes India'' magazine.
The business news website Moneycontrol.com is also owned by Network18.
The
YouTube
YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...
channel, CRUX. news, is a Network18 product.
Investments
The
venture investment division of the company is called Capital18. Its investments include the travel bookings website
Yatra.com
Yatra.com is an Indian online travel agency and travel search engine. It is based in Gurugram, Haryana. It was founded by Dhruv Shringi, Manish Amin and Sabina Chopra in August 2006.
History
In April 2012, it became the second-largest onlin ...
, the marketing website ''Webchutney'', the movie ticket booking website ''BookMyShow'', the brokerage firm SMC Global and the financial technology company
Infibeam
Infibeam Avenues Limited is an Indian payment infrastructure and software as a service (SaaS) fintech company that provides digital payment services, eCommerce platforms, digital lending, data cloud storage and omnichannel enterprise software t ...
.
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Network18 Group
Television stations in Delhi
Television stations in Mumbai
Television stations in New Delhi
Television broadcasting companies of India
Mass media companies based in Mumbai
Companies based in Mumbai
Indian companies established in 1993
Mass media companies established in 1993
Television channels and stations established in 1993
2014 mergers and acquisitions
1993 establishments in Maharashtra
Companies listed on the National Stock Exchange of India
Companies listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange