Indian Viewer Is Developing A Very Healthy Appetite For Business News

Neel Chowdhury

Vice President – Marketing, CNBC TV 18 & CNBC AWAAZ

“The opportunities are immense, the economy in a slow year for most of the world grew at a healthy 6.7% rate, the business is booming, and there is a sense in the country of the coming of a golden Indian age,” says Neel Chowdhury, Vice President – Marketing, CNBC TV 18 & CNBC AWAAZ while speaking to BestMediaInfo.com

Q) CNBC-TV 18 is the no 1 channel in business channel genre with around 55% market share. What are the factors contributing to this success?

We actually have over 70% share in the business news genre, and according to us the reasons are many, one of the prime reasons we are where we are is because of the dedicated team that is in place, if you see our attrition rates they are the lowest in the industry, none of our top anchors have left us, and have enabled us to go from strength to strength, coupled with a top notch research team and great relationships with the Who's who of India inc and the Indian policy empowers us to be the best in what we do. We also draw strength from the fact that we are a part of one of India's fastest growing media groups and are able to cross leverage the strength of the other leading entities within our group.

In addition to that our global heritage and the CNBC global network enables us to be the first to report and give an in-depth analysis of the business news happenings and developments from across the world. All these factors on the base of the best technology available in our studios have helped make and sustain us as the no. 1 business channel in the country.

Q) You are in content sharing terms with Mint. How is this content sharing helping in expanding your market share?

The content tie-up helps the partners synergize in terms of audience, content, medium and market helping the brands cross leverage each others brand values. Through a content tie up both the partners can create a media multiplier effect by increasing the touch points for engagement. This enables the respective target audiences of both CNBC-TV18 and Mint access the other partner's content.

Q) How difficult in becomes for a Hindi business channel to strive as the audience prefer more English business channels?

I would disagree with the assumption here that is being made, our belief while launching CNBC Awaaz, was that there was a latent need for a consumer business channel, and from its launch our belief has been vindicated. If one takes a look at the numbers that we have for the channel you will see that it delivers far more audiences than the English business channels too.

Q) How much the backing from international brand like CNBC helps in establishing a niche in market?

In today's world, where global markets and business are more interlinked with ours, the knowledge and insights about movement of the global business space and markets is crucial, CNBC's global leadership in business news allows us to provide global business news as and when it happens, along with expert opinions from the best analysts across the globe.

Q) What opportunities do you see for the business news channels in Indian market?

The opportunities are immense, the economy in a slow year for most of the world grew at a healthy 6.7% rate, the business is booming, and there is a sense in the country of the coming of a golden Indian age. If you see general news channels or read general news papers, business news dominates, from the markets to India Inc's buys abroad the Indian viewer is fast developing a very healthy appetite for business news, and therein lies the true opportunity for the business news channels.

Info@BestMediaInfo.com