Puthiya Thalaimurai to launch English news channel

The media company plans to launch the channel, which is not named yet, in the next year. It will be a 24x7 general English news channel.

After a year of the launch a 24-hour Tamil news channel, New Generation Media Corporation, publishers of the Puthiya Thalaimurai group of magazines, has announced the launch of a 24-hour general English news channel. The news is confirmed to afaqs! by Shyam Kumar, CEO, Puthiya Thalaimurai.

Though the channel is not named yet, the company has started recruitments for the upcoming channel, which will be launched next year. Incidentally, the company had launched the Tamil news channel which operates from Chennai in August, 2011. However, the new channel will be a national channel and tap the audience in the 25+ age group across the country.

The company adds that after the completion of a year in the regional news space with Puthiya Thalaimurai, the need for a national presence was felt. Expressing confidence about the venture, the group adds that though Hindi has a better reach, English is a universal language and the channel can have a global presence, later.

The group's English news channel will compete with other players in the space such as Times Now, NDTV 24x7, Headlines Today, NewsX and CNN-IBN.

It is learnt that the creative and media agencies for the upcoming channel is yet to be finalised. However, the creative duties of the Tamil news channel, Puthiya Thalaimurai remains with Disha Communications; while the media duties continue to be with OMD. However, the ad sales will still be taken care of by Fourth Dimension.