NDTV's Narendra Tripathi set to join Jagran TV as sales head

Narendra Tripathi, assistant vice-president, sales, NDTV Media is set to join Jagran Television as the head of ad sales, industry sources have pointed out.

While Tripathi could not be contacted, he is said to serving his notice period. When Rajnath Kamath, head of ad sales, NDTV Media was contacted, he denied any such development.

Even Siddhartha Gupta, director, Jagran Television, has declined to confirm the appointment. He said, “I am unable to comment on this development at the moment.”

Prior to NDTV Media, Tripathi was working with RED FM. He quit RED FM in March 2003.

The news channel from the Jagran Group is scheduled to be launched in March 2005. As per industry sources, the new channel will have many interesting shows. The programmes will include feature-based stories and chat shows, sources said.

Jagran group is putting together an editorial, production and marketing team for the channel, which will consist of around 150-200 members. In November 2004, Arup Ghosh who was HOD, Sahara Samay Rashtriya joined Jagran Television as director, news.

According to industry estimates, the advertising revenue that accrues to Hindi news channels is roughly in the region of Rs 400 crore. Of this, leader Aaj Tak corners about Rs 170-180 crore, ZEE News about Rs 70-80 crore, NDTV India about Rs 60 crore, STAR News (Rs 50 crore), DD News (Rs 40 crore) and Sahara Samay Rashtriya (lowest at Rs 15-20 crore).

Gupta had earlier told agencyfaqs! that advertising budgets in the Hindi belt are increasingly skewed towards TV, and the group is keen on arresting this trend. "If we have a TV news channel, what an advertiser can get is a good media option," he said.

© 2005 agencyfaqs!