Tara Newz was an Indian Bengali-language satellite and cable 24-hour news and current affairs television channel owned by the Saradha Group, a

chit fund A chit fund is a type of rotating savings and credit association system practiced in India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Pakistan other Asian countries. Chit fund schemes may be organized by financial institutions, or informally among friends, relative ...

company. It was launched on 21 February 2005, airing regional news coverages, after being split from Tara Bangla, which was launched on 28 April 2000. Tara Newz was targeted to Bengali-speaking audiences in both

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

and

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...

. It is broadcast from Tara's headquarters in Salt Lake, Kolkata. Due to financial reasons, the channel was shut down in 2013.

History

In 2000,

Doordarshan Doordarshan (abbreviated as DD; Hindi: , ) is an Indian public service broadcaster founded by the Government of India, owned by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and one of Prasar Bharati's two divisions. One of India's largest bro ...

and later

Star TV Star TV may refer to: * E! (Canadian TV channel) (formerly Star!), a Canadian entertainment news channel * Las Estrellas (Spanish for The Stars), the Mexican television network * Estrella TV (Spanish for Star TV), the American Spanish-language net ...

's former head, Rathikant Basu, established TARA, which stood for ''Television Aimed at Regional Audiences''. The network comprised four regional television channels in Bengali, Punjabi, Gujarati, and Marathi languages, all of which besides the Bengali one have shut down because of financial losses. On 21 February 2005, Tara exited the general entertainment genre due to stiff competition from its rivals, such as

ETV Bangla Colors Bangla, previously known as ETV Bangla, is an Indian general entertainment pay television channel broadcasting in Bengali language. It was launched in 2000 as ETV Bangla, owned by the Hyderabad-based ETV Network. It was later sold to TV18 ...

and

Alpha Bangla Zee Bangla is an Indian general entertainment pay television channel broadcasting in the Bengali language. It is owned by the Zee Entertainment Enterprises. It is the first Bengali-language satellite television channel in India, officially com ...

, and split Tara Bangla into two television channels, Tara Newz and

Tara Muzik Tara Muzik was an Indian Bengali-language satellite and cable music-oriented television channel owned by the Saradha Group, a chit fund company. It was launched on 21 February 2005, as the first Bengali-language music-oriented channel in the w ...

, devoted to news and music programming respectively. In 2010, Saradha Group acquired the two channels from Broadcast Worldwide, which owned the Tara television network.

Competitors

Kolkata TV Kolkata TV is a 24-hour Bengali news channel launched by SST Media in 2006. Ex ABP man Suman Chattopadhyay is responsible for its birth. Now it is owned by Kaustuv Ray, chairman of RP Group. The slogan used by the channel is ''Raatdin Saatdin' ...

24 Ghanta ''Zee Media Corporation Limited'' (abbreviated as ZMCL; formerly Zee News Limited) is the news broadcasting company of the Essel Group which is controlled by Subhash Chandra. The company is engaged mainly in the business of broadcasting of news ...

ABP Ananda ABP Ananda (formerly Star Ananda) is a free to air Bengali news channel based in Kolkata, West Bengal owned by ABP Group. Founded on 1 June 2005 as Star Ananda, a joint venture between Star India and the ABP Group, the channel was renamed as ...

News Time News Time Bangla is a 24-hour Bengali news channel launched in 2010. In 2011 they broadcast the 33rd Federation cup held in Kolkata. See also *International broadcasting *List of Indian television stations There are currently 900 permi ...

Mahuaa Khobor Mahuaa Khobor was a 24-hour Bengali news channel launched in 2010. The news channel covered local news of West Bengal as well as other national and International News. See also *International broadcasting *List of Indian television stations ...

* Focus Bangla * Channel 10

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tara Newz Television stations in Kolkata Television channels and stations established in 2005 Defunct television channels in India 2005 establishments in West Bengal