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Republic TV

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Republic TV
CountryIndia
HeadquartersMumbai, Maharashtra, India
Programming
Language(s)English
Ownership
OwnerARG Outlier Media
Asianet News
Rajeev Chandrasekhar
Links
Websitewww.republicworld.com

Republic TV is an Indian English-language news television channel. It broadcasts from its studios in Mumbai and Bangalore.[1] Created by former Times Now news presenter Arnab Goswami, it was launched on 6 May 2017.[2][3] It is owned by BJP, through an entrepreneur and politician named Rajeev Chandrasekhar, and others including Goswami, along with his wife Samyabrata Ray.[4]

History

Arnab Goswami, then Editor-in-Chief of a 24-hour English news channel Times Now, resigned from the channel on 1 November 2016.[3] On 14 November, he hosted for the last time The Newshour Debate.[2] On 16 December, Goswami announced that he is coming up with his new venture, a news channel called Republic.[5] However, in January 2017, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Subramanian Swamy wrote to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting that the name Republic was in violation of Emblems and Names (Prevention of improper use) Act 1950. As a result, the name changed to Republic TV and the same was communicated to the Ministry by Goswami through a letter.[6]

Team and launch

Republic TV was launched on May 5, 2017. Rajeev Chandrasekhar, an entrepreneur, and an independent Member of Parliament in the Rajya Sabha, also the vice-chairman of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition National Democratic Alliance in its Kerala wing, invested in ARG Outlier Media Private Ltd., a company which Republic TV was reported to be a part of. Through companies owned by him, he invested ₹30 crore (US$3.6 million) in it.

The other major investor was Goswami himself along with his wife Samyabrata Ray, who invested through SARG Media Holding Private Ltd., a company that the two held majority equity in.[7]

S. Sundaram, who had served as the CFO for Times Now between 2005 and 2012, was named the Group CFO for Republic TV.[8]

Others who joined included senior anchor and Deputy Assignment Editor of Tamil news channel Thanthi TV, S. A. Hariharan;[9] retired army officer and television personality Major Gaurav Arya[10] chief business officer of Reliance Broadcast Network Vikas Khanchandani as the CEO, co-founder of The News Minute Chitra Subramaniam as editorial adviser, former chief correspondent from Jammu and Kashmir for Times Now Aditya Raj Kaul, writer and founder-editor of Gentleman and Business Barons, Minhaz Merchant[11] and actor Anupam Kher.[12]

It was launched on 6 May 2017 as a free-to-air channel through most DTH services and cable television operators, alongside mobile platforms such as JioTV and Hotstar.[13] Reporting on its launch, Business Standard wrote, "The company has already hired 300 people, of whom 215 are on board. A state-of-the-art-studio is being built in Mumbai's Lower Parel area."[14]

Reception

Republic TV was received well by viewers following its launch. It became the most-watched news channel in India in its first week of airing with 2.11 million impressions[15] and 51.9 per cent viewership as per data released for the week by the Broadcast Audience Research Council.[16] In the first week of its airing, it was among the most Tweeted.[17][18] However, it was surrounded with controversies immediately after with certain sections of the media accusing it of biased and judgmental reporting, and calling its style of reporting "loud" and "noisy".[19][20][21]

Controversies

On 12 May 2017, the News Broadcasters Association (NBA) lodged a complaint with the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) accusing Republic TV of using unethical tactics to claim a high viewership. It claimed that the channel ran multiple feeds on various multi-system operator (MSO) platforms. The complaint added that the channel listed itself at multiple locations across various genres in the electronic program guide of various MSOs and other distributors on multiple logical channel numbers (LCNs), which it said violated the TRAI rules,[22] which mandates every channel to declare its genre to it and every distributor to assign a unique channel number to each such channel.[23] Subsequently, the TRAI ruled in favour of NBA issuing a mandate against use of multiple LCNs.[24]

On 17 May, Bennett Coleman & Co. Ltd. (BCCL) lodged a complaint against Goswami and Prema Sridevi, a journalist with Republic TV, under the Indian Penal Code and Information Technology Act, 2000 accusing them of copyright infringement.[25] BCCL alleged that the two, previously employed with Times Now, that it owns and operates, had used its intellectual property (IP) in telecasting certain audio tapes that were in their possession during their time at the former Channel. Alongside IP infringement, the complaint also alleged commission of offences of theft, criminal breach of trust and misappropriation of property, on the two, on multiple occasions days after the channel's launch.[26][27]

On 26 May, Member of Parliament Shashi Tharoor filed a civil defamation case in the Delhi High Court against Goswami and Republic TV in connection with the channel's broadcast of news items from 8 to 13 May claiming his link in his wife Sunanda Pushkar's death in 2014.[28][29] Seeking the channel's response, Justice Manmohan of the High Court said, "Bring down the rhetoric. You can put out your story, you can put out the facts. You cannot call him names. That is uncalled for."[30]

See also

References

  1. ^ "'Republic' of hate? Arnab unapologetic over his new 'jingoistic, anti-Pakistan and Fox News-like' TV channel". Daily Mail. 1 May 2017. Retrieved 17 May 2017.
  2. ^ a b "Arnab Goswami announces new venture; Times Now gets a new chief editor". Firstpost. Retrieved 8 January 2017.
  3. ^ a b "Arnab Goswami's new venture". Business Standard. Retrieved 8 January 2017.
  4. ^ "Kerala NDA vice-chairman Rajeev Chandrasekhar investor, director in Arnab Goswami's Republic". The Indian Express. 13 January 2017. Retrieved 19 July 2017.
  5. ^ "Arnab Goswami has announced his new venture 'Republic'". The Indian Express.
  6. ^ "Arnab Goswami changes channel name to Republic TV, gives in to Subramanian Swamy". Firstpost. 31 January 2017. Archived from the original on 9 May 2017. Retrieved 9 May 2017.
  7. ^ Kaushik, Krishn (13 January 2017). "Kerala NDA vice-chairman Rajeev Chandrasekhar investor, director in Arnab Goswami's Republic". The Indian Express. Retrieved 27 April 2017.
  8. ^ "S Sundaram joins Republic as CFO". exchange4media.com. 23 February 2017. Archived from the original on 1 March 2017. Retrieved 27 April 2017.
  9. ^ "Arnab's Republic adds S.A.Hariharan from Thanthi TV to its Editorial team". tvnews4u.com. 27 February 2017. Archived from the original on 27 April 2017. Retrieved 27 April 2017.
  10. ^ "Major Gaurav Arya collaborates with Arnab's Republic TV". newslaundry.com. 15 March 2017. Retrieved 27 April 2017.
  11. ^ "Minhaz Merchant on Twitter". Twitter. Retrieved 15 April 2017.
  12. ^ Sen, Rajyasree (24 May 2017). "Anupam Kher's People a welcome break from the screaming jingoism of Republic TV". Livemint. Retrieved 24 May 2017.
  13. ^ "Arnab Goswami's Republic first Indian news channel to air live on Hotstar". Business Standard. 5 May 2017. Retrieved 6 May 2017.
  14. ^ Kohli-Khandekar, Vanita (6 May 2017). "Arnab Goswami's Republic TV went live today; but why so much fuss over it?". Business Standard. Retrieved 6 May 2017.
  15. ^ Ahluwalia, Harveen (18 May 2017). "Arnab Goswami's Republic TV topples Times Now in debut week: Barc data". Livemint. Retrieved 18 May 2017.
  16. ^ "Republic TV has 51.9% viewership in debut week: BARCH gives data to paid subs despite NBAs request". indiantelevision.com. Archived from the original on 18 May 2017. Retrieved 18 May 2017.
  17. ^ "Republic TV gets 2.61 lakh tweets for 13 hashtags since launch". bestmediainfo.com. Archived from the original on 17 May 2017. Retrieved 17 May 2017.
  18. ^ Biswas, Venkata Susmita (8 May 2017). "Republic TV trends on Twitter with 100 tweets a minute". exchange4media.com. Archived from the original on 17 May 2017. Retrieved 17 May 2017.
  19. ^ Bajpai, Shailaja (11 May 2017). "On the run". The Indian Express. Retrieved 17 May 2017.
  20. ^ Kohli-Khandekar, Vanita (8 May 2017). "Arnab's Republic a reflection of what India has become- noisy and chaotic". Business Standard. Retrieved 17 May 2017.
  21. ^ "Arnab Goswami's Republic TV is losing the battle of babble; why not try something completely different?". Firstpost. 27 May 2017. Retrieved 28 May 2017.
  22. ^ Agarwal, Nikhil (15 May 2017). "Arnab Goswami's Republic TV uses unethical tactic to push viewership, NBA petitions TRAI". India Today. Retrieved 17 May 2017.
  23. ^ Ahluwalia, Harveen (16 May 2017). "Arnab Goswami's Republic TV flouting rules, says NBA in Trai complaint". Livemint. Retrieved 17 May 2017.
  24. ^ "TRAI rules against Republic TV's unethical distribution practices to boost ratings". The Times of India. 2 June 2017. Retrieved 3 June 2017.
  25. ^ "Times Now files criminal case for stealing against Arnab Goswami of Republic TV". The Economic Times. 17 May 2017. Retrieved 17 May 2017.
  26. ^ "Arnab Goswami faces police complaint for 'cheating' Times Now over Sunanda Pushkar, Lalu tapes". Daily News and Analysis. 17 May 2017. Retrieved 17 May 2017.
  27. ^ "Times Group files criminal complaint against Arnab Goswami for IPR breach". Business Standard. Retrieved 18 May 2017.
  28. ^ "Congress leader Shashi Tharoor files defamation case against Republic TV's Arnab Goswami". Indian Express. 26 May 2017.
  29. ^ "Shashi Tharoor files defamation suit against Arnab Goswami, Republic TV in High Court". The Economic Times. 26 May 2017.
  30. ^ "'Bring down the rhetoric', Delhi HC tells Arnab Goswami, Republic TV". The Hindu. 29 May 2017. Retrieved 3 June 2017.

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