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TV18 enters into content sharing alliance with eFE

Television Eighteen Ltd (TV18), India’s premier business news content provider, has entered into a unique business news content sharing alliance with eFE, India’s first e-business newspaper, which forms a part of The Financial Express five days a week. The alliance is effective from May 16, 2000. The objective of the alliance is to create synergies that allow users to access business news seamlessly through print and TV, enhancing their access to quality reporting and in-depth analysis and generating greater interest and higher reader/viewer reach.

Under this arrangement, eFE will support CNBC India’s coverage in the Convergence sectors of information, communication, and entertainment). These sectors have a high level of investor interest and future growth potential, and the eFE alliance is expected to generate greater viewership interest in the CNBC India channel. Breaking stories from these sectors will be telecast in three-four minute multiple slots titled "eFE on Air" on weekdays, providing viewers with value-added insights about industry developments. TV18 will, in turn, share content emanating from its strong business news network with The Financial Express. This will be published in The Financial Express as an exclusive column titled "CNBC India Daily Digest". At present, TV18 generates some of the most comprehensive news packages in the industry. With this alliance, TV18 will bring to the print medium the dynamism of TV news gathering and analysis. This alliance with the print medium will allow TV18 to bring to readers news that was hitherto unavailable to them on the TV channel.

This is probably a first-of-its-kind, non-monetary alliance in the Indian media industry and will facilitate two leading business news content providers to leverage current strengths without creating additional infrastructure.

TV18 provides India-based television content to CNBC India, India’s only dedicated 24-hours business news channel. eFE is the technology-centric section of The Financial Express newspaper, focussing on the rapidly emerging Convergence sectors like IT and media.

The eFE alliance takes TV18 a step further towards establishing a presence in multiple media and the company is well positioned to ride the convergence revolution. TV18’s media presence now includes :

Business programming on TV through CNBC India, India’s only dedicated business television channel.

Entertainment programming content generation-with programmes on Star Plus Sony, Zee and other popular channels.

Internet-a finance Vortal (vertical portal) to be launched soon.

Print-through the e-FE alliance

Commenting on the eFE alliance, TV18’s Chief Executive Officer Haresh Chawla said: "TV18’s alliance with eFE has furthered the company’s objective of establishing itself as a leading player in the rapidly converging communications industry. TV18 will leverage its content creation capabilities to gain presence in the print media. This alliance is in line with our strategy of collaborating with value-added content owners and we will continue to look at more tie-ups to establish TV18’s leadership position in the Indian media industry."

Commenting on the eFE alliance, Indian Express Group CEO Shekhar Gupta said: "The alliance with TV18 will allow us to extend the eFE brand in the electronic media space leading to the convergence of ideas. The electronic medium will put a face to eFE whereas the print medium will provide depth to TV18’s content. We are confident that the collective intellectual property will help both brands in extending their popularity and reach, further strengthening their market position."