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No bad blood between Peter and me: Vir Sanghvi

Refuting rumours that he is quitting as CEO of the about to be launched INX News, Vir Sanghvi says Peter Mukerjea and he are ready to launch a world class news channel

Is Vir Sanghvi in or out? If the grapevine is to be believed, the CEO of INX Media’s about to be launched channel, NewsX, is already on his way out. The channel was to be launched at the end of 2007, but was then delayed by a couple of months. For the last few days, rumours from both within INX Media and without have been abounding that the “never ending delay” is causing bad blood between chief strategy officer Peter Mukerjea and Sanghvi.

Talking to agencyfaqs! over the telephone, Sanghvi denied any bad blood between him and Mukerjea. He said, “Peter and I are on cordial terms.” He added, “The rumours are completely baseless and spread by some malicious element. We are in the process of launching a world class news channel, just as we had promised.” He revealed, “As slated, the channel will be out in March.”

No bad blood between Peter and me: Vir Sanghvi
Vir Sanghvi
The INX Media management could not be contacted on the rumours about Sanghvi quitting because repeated calls to both Mukerjea and chief executive officer Indrani Mukerjea went unanswered.

NewsX is the brainchild of Peter Mukerjea and Indrani Mukerjea. Sanghvi was always the first choice to head the news channel and has been part of the team since the project was conceptualised.

Apart from a Hindi general entertainment channel, 9X, and a music channel, 9X Music, both on air now, and NewsX, which is headed for a March launch, INX Media plans to roll out nine other channels over the next two years. Several regional language channels are also being contemplated, including in Bengali, Gujarati, Punjabi and Bhojpuri. NewsX is being branded as a premium English news channel.

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