Sumantha Rathore
Media

Rolling Stone India goes on-air on NDTV Good Times

The music magazine will now be extended to television, as The Rolling Stone Show on NDTV Good Times every Saturday

The music magazine, Rolling Stone, brought to India by the Mumbai based MW.com, under licence from Wenner Media, is ready to roll out a 30-minute television show. The Rolling Stone Show will go on-air on July 19 at 9:30 pm, on NDTV Good Times, the lifestyle channel.

The 12-episode, weekly show will be hosted by Luke Kenny, the contributing editor and columnist of Rolling Stone India. The show will be an extension of the print version of the cult magazine, which debuted in India in February 2008.

Rolling Stone India goes on-air on NDTV Good Times
The TG for this high-gloss show comprises rock music fans above the age of 15 years and those looking for something beyond Bollywood music.

Talking to afaqs! about the show, Radhakrishnan Nair, editor and publisher, Rolling Stone India says, "Rolling Stone has already become a strong brand in India. Launching a show based on the magazine was a natural extension. Rolling Stone provides a platform for Indian bands -- so a large chunk of the content will be Indian, but there will be international content as well. It is an effort to reach out to people and get them to know more about the Indian rock culture."

Rolling Stone India goes on-air on NDTV Good Times
This is the first time that any edition of Rolling Stone is launching a show. The format of the show will have a mix of music, interviews, reviews, news nuggets and personal stories of musicians and bands. Apart from Indian rock bands, Asian underground music will also be part of the show. The show will mirror a large part of Rolling Stone's Indian content, and will also feature stories conceived specially for television.

On why Rolling Stone chose NDTV Good Times, Nair says, "The idea of the show came from NDTV Good Times. In some time, we would have graduated to television and approached various channels. The association with NDTV Good Times also stems from the fact that they know about music, which was important. There are no shows like this on Indian television right now."

He adds, "Unfortunately, Indian rock music does not get much of television or radio time. The Rolling Stone Show will fill this gap authoritatively."

Gunjan Mehrish, head, music programming, NDTV Lifestyle, says, "For long, we were looking for a fair share of music programming, and with this show, it is one step in that direction."

He adds, "We've been in talks with the Anand Mahindra Group to take the content of the magazine on-air for almost a year now. Since the magazine has not extended its brand name on-air in any other country, it took a lot of convincing at the New York headquarters to get the show going."

The show has been made by the channel itself. Mehrish adds, "Rock and Roll's popularity has evolved from cult to mainstream in India. It is this excitement that we wish to tap through this show. We're confident that the transformation of this popular magazine into a television show will be a huge hit with music lovers."

Though the launch of the magazine was a high-profile event, there are no similar plans for the launch of the show. The show will be promoted on the NDTV Good Times channel and website and in select magazines, apart from advertorials in Rolling Stone and at other events organised by the magazine.

At the moment, NDTV is contract bound to use content from the magazine, but the channel is hopeful of getting the rights to share international content as well.

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