Indian news broadcaster Times Now eyes international expansion | M&M Global

Indian news broadcaster Times Now eyes international expansion

News broadcaster Times Now, the most-watched English-language news channel in India, has set its sights on expansion across Europe.

Times Now

The channel, part of The Times of India group owned by Bennett, Coleman & Co, began broadcasting in the UK yesterday (16 November), its most significant launch since rolling out in the US in 2011.

Times Now will be available through pay-TV platform Sky, and will target the UK’s 1.4 million Indian diaspora with Indian news, although it plans to develop regional content in the future.

It has now set its sights on launching in Germany and France in 2016, as well as building a London-based commercial team of “half a dozen” executives.

Speaking to The Financial Times, Times Now chief executive MK Anand said: “The UK launch is extremely important. High quality global journalism requires investment. It can be our biggest diaspora market and a bridge into Europe. Over the longer run there is no reason for us not to envisage Times Now as a global brand.”

Anand added that the success of Al Jazeera, which reportedly attracts an audience of one million viewers in the UK, can provide a model for Times Now.

“Al Jazeera is an English-language channel which is talking about the world with an Arabic lens, and in time we can do the same for an Indian world view.”

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