CNN-IBN, the English news television channel of Network18 may soon lose its prefix. The 10-year brand licensing agreement between the Indian company and Turner Broadcasting’s CNN, which is set to expire in January, will not be renewed.
Zee Group is in talks with the US broadcaster for a tie-up to launch an English news channel, according to two people familiar with the development.
Currently, Network18’s brand licensing accord with CNN, allows the Indian TV channel to pick reports from CNN’s extensive global news network. However, Turner Broadcasting does not own equity in the Indian company.
The initial branding deal was signed between CNN Turner International and TV18 group company Global Broadcast News (GBN), which was then headed by journalist Rajdeep Sardesai. Later, GBN became IBN18 Broadcast Ltd and then TV18 Broadcast Ltd, which currently operates CNN-IBN, the Hindi news channel IBN7 and the Marathi news channel IBN Lokmat. CNN-IBN was launched in December 2005.
“It is not a break-up. Both the companies may mutually agree not to renew the brand licensing agreement. It is coming up for renewal only in January 2016,” said one of the two people cited above. “CNN has had a successful 10-year run with the Network18 group for its English news channel. There is no misunderstanding either.”
Meanwhile, a CNN team visited the Zee News facilities in Noida recently, sparking speculation that the two news broadcasting companies are in talks.
It is not clear if Zee and CNN are looking only at a branding tie-up or are exploring a deeper partnership involving equity. The talks between the two companies come at a time when the Indian government is examining the possibility of raising the cap on foreign direct investment in news media from 26% to 49%.
Read more at: CNN, IBN unlikely to renew deal on branding; Zee could step in - Livemint
