Magicbricks Now makes way for Mirror Now

The new channel from Times Network will highlight issues that impact the daily lives of citizens. The flagship show 'The Urban Debate' will now run on Mirror Now between 8 PM and 10 PM

BestMediaInfo Bureau | Mumbai | March 23, 2017

Magicbricks Now has become Mirror Now and the genre has changed from property business news channel to a general news channel with focus on civic news. According to an announcement made by Times Network, the television network under The Times Group, its second English general news channel 'Mirror Now' went on air at 6 AM on March 23, 2017.

MK Anand

Asked why Magicbricks Now's name was changed, MK Anand, MD and CEO, Times Network, said, “This is not a Magicbricks Now conversion. It is a new channel which is being launched. It is a new channel that will replace Magicbricks Now from a distribution point of view.”

Mirror Now will highlight issues that impact the daily lives of citizens. The channel will attempt to cover subjects like crime, women's safety, traffic woes and civic issues such as cleanliness, health, environment, power and water. The channel is being launched on the erstwhile Magicbricks Now platform, which is already present on all leading cable and satellite networks. This is expected to give the new channel a major head start in the highly competitive space.

Since the content on the channel changes almost completely, the editorial team too changes, though the new team will take a few inputs from the Times Now team. Anand explained that the shift is happening in phases and will be completely stabilised in a few weeks since they are using internal resources to build it.

It was also learnt from sources close to Times Network that there will be a few significant senior and mid-level changes in the television broadcast network. With the exit of Ashit Kukian, former President, Revenue, and the entry of Nikhil Gandhi to head revenue, there will be some structural changes in the team. On the editorial front, Faye D'Souza, Senior Editor, Mirror Now, and her team from 'The Urban Debate' remains the same, but the other team will change.

In an official statement, Anand, said, "Delivering India's number 1 English news channel Times Now for the last decade has given us invaluable experience and infrastructure that we believe has the capacity to produce more. And the news flow that this nation of 1.3 billion produces is impossible to contain in one linear stream, hence, our second offering -- Mirror Now. The tone, style and result-focused journalistic approach will be the same as Times Now. I think there is room for differentiated segments within national news to deliver another winner."

While Magicbricks Now was launched with a partnership with Magicbricks, Mirror Now is not the result of any partnership. It is Times' in-house brand name which is being used by the television network under the media company.

Rahul Shivshankar

Rahul Shivshankar, Chief Editor, Times Now, said, “As a network that caters to 100 million urban affluent viewers in India, it was important for us to diversify our channel offering and content. With the heavy news flow and emergence of new political and economic centres there was a teething need to launch a new channel to cater to this segment. We want to provide rich and in-depth content to our viewers and hence our new offering – Mirror Now. With this channel, we aim to strengthen our position as the leading English broadcast network and continue to inform, engage and inspire our audience.”

D'Souza said, “With Mirror Now, the focus will be on citizens and their choice for differentiated content. Mirror Now will cultivate a loyal viewership with news that affects citizens' day-to-day lives. The channel and our flagship show, 'The Urban Debate', will shine an uncomfortable spotlight on apathy, inefficiency and corruption that is the root cause of most problems we face as Indians today. 'The Urban Debate', the emerging platform for raising citizens' issues, will now run on Mirror Now at prime time between 8 PM and 10 PM.”

Info@BestMediaInfo.com

Info@BestMediaInfo.com