Company Background - TV18

Television Eighteen (TV18), India's premier business and consumer news broadcaster and leading media content provider, was incorporated on 24th Sep 1993 as Television Eighteen India Private Ltd. It Became a public limited Company in 2nd November 1994 and Subsequently Renamed as Television Eighteen India on 2nd Jan 1995. Over the last decade, the Company has provided prime time television content to almost all leading satellite channels in India including BBC, Star Plus, Sony Entertainment Television, Zee, MTV and Discovery. Raghav Bahl and Sanjay Ray Chaudhury are the promoters of the Company.

CNBC TV18 is India's leading business news channel. The channel is a joint venture between CNBC Asia-Pacific and Television Eighteen India Ltd., with TV18 holding 90 percent of the stake.

TV18 owns studios in New Delhi and Mumbai and has a news gathering network of over 200 journalists across the country.

At Present the TV18 India Ltd five Subsidiaries namely Television Eighteen Mauritus Ltd, e-eighteen.com Ltd, I.News.com, Eighteen Entertainment India Ltd, Money Control Dot Com India Ltd and SRH Broadcast News Holdings pvt Ltd.

In 1996 the Company set up a wholly owned Subsidiary in Mauritius i.e's Television Eighteen Mauritius Ltd on receiving requisite consent from the Department of company affairs and reserve Bank of India. It also entered in to joint venture through its subsidiary to launch Asia Business News India (ABNi), the countries first dedicated 24-hour business news information channel.

In 1997, this venture suffered a major setback as ABNi, which was providing around 50% of the Companies revenue closed down following the merger of its parent, ABN with CNBC Asia, but regained its relationship the CNBC in 2003. CNBC-TV18 will now jointly brand a channel which was operated by TV18s Subsidiary and TV18 shall now own nearly 90% stake in the Channel and balance held by the CNBC Asia Pacific

In Dec 1999, the company came out with a public issue of 29,36,000 equity shares of Rs.10/- each at a premium of Rs.170/- per share. In march 2000 it incorporated e-eighteen.com pvt ltd, a subsidiary to house its internal interests. The subsidiary has acquired Moneycontrol Dot Com Private Ltd, the Company owning the highly successful financial portal, Money control.com

During 2001-2002, the entertainment part of the Companies business was hived off to 100% subsidiary viz Eighteen Entertainment India Ltd.

During 2002-2003 the company successfully restructured its relationship with CNBC in accordance with the new government guidelines for new channels. Tv18 previously held a 49% stake in the CNBC India Joint Venture in Mauritius. Under the new Guidelines CNBC-TV18 is now a jointly branded channel to be operated by TV18's subsidiary and TV18 shall now own a near 90% stake in the Channel company and the balance 10% being held by CNBC Asia Pacific. TV18 has also prematurely terminated its ad sales representation relationship with SET (Sony Entertainment Television) in April 2002 and has set up a dedicated inhouse marketing and sales team for the channel.

In 2004 A Large 40,000 Sq Ft plus facility was set up in Mumbai with state-of-the-art broadcast equipment and studios.

During 2005 the Company entered in to General News Space. To Facilite this ambitious expansion, the Company started work on a 60,000 Sq ft studio in Noida, which will be operational in the fourth quarter of the year. Turner International (Turner) and Global Broadcast News (GBN), a TV18 Group Company, announced a partnership to launch a co-branded, 24-hour, English-language general news channel in India. Renowned TV journalist Rajdeep Sardesai spearheads GBN's foray into the general news space as the Editor-in-Chief of the service. The co-branded service, CNN-IBN, will build upon the strong foundation of TV18's newsgathering experience and infrastructure in India, bolstered by CNN's eminent and extensive global news network.

Under the terms of the agreement, GBN's proposed channel - formerly known as India Broadcast News (IBN) and now co-branded as CNN-IBN - will have access to CNN's trademark live breaking news as well as key feature programmes. This unique alliance will, for the first time ever, enable Indian viewers to view local news as well as relevant global news from CNN, the world's news leader, on the same platform. The new channel will focus on providing robust and high quality news from every corner of India with a complete commitment to the needs and aspirations of the Indian viewer, while CNN International will continue to deliver global news to Indian viewers.

Headquartered in New Delhi, the channel will be supported by over 20 bureaus nationwide, along with a team of experienced newspersons and production staff, backed by TVl8's state-of-the-art broadcast infrastructure and newsgathering technology.

GBN, a TV18 Group Company, is a 74:26 joint venture between the TV18 Group and professionals - Rajdeep Sardesai, Sameer Manchanda and Haresh Chawla. GBN's charter is to launch channels in the general news space under the editorial leadership of Sardesai, one of India's most renowned TV journalists.

The company during 2005-2006, acquired a 50% stake in Channel 7 - a general news channel in Hindi, owned by Dainik Jagran Groupin April 2006. TV 18 group has recently revamped the editorial team and relaunched the channel with a new international look in June 2006. The company has done a JV with Asia's leading e-recruitment provider-jobstreet.com for a job search portal and launched yatra.in- India's first integrated online travel services company founded by TV18 and Norwest Venture Partners. During the year the company also launched a subscription based investment advisiory portal called poweryourtrade.com which has got over 75,000 paid subscribers