News X acquired by ITV Group and its associates

Information TV, owned by ITV Group and its associates, has acquired INX News, which owns the English news channel News X. The ITV Group is led by Kartikeya Sharma.

News X was on the market for a while now. The channel was originally owned by INX Media, a company promoted by former STAR India CEO Peter Mukerjea. It was launched in March, 2008. After less than a year, it was taken over by Indi Media Network in January, 2009. Indi Media Network is a partnership between then Nai Duniya CEO, Vinay Chhajlani and Businessworld editor, Jehangir Pocha.

In an official communiqué, Kartikeya Sharma, managing director, ITV, says, "This is a logical market expansion for us and enables us to enter the English news domain, while strengthening our presence in the broadcast and digital media space. News X has emerged as a quality news provider with great growth potential and making it part of our group's network of seven regional news channels will bolster news gathering abilities and create multiple synergies all around."

There was an internal announcement in the channel and there were talks about some resource sharing with India News.

In a joint statement, Chhajlani and Pocha said, "We are happy to hand over the channel to the ITV Group and acknowledge the contribution of the team that has earned News X much recognition. Being part of the ITV Group will help News X transcend the limitations of being a stand-alone channel and give new thrust to the channel's editorial and commercial development."

For the record, ITV Media (Information TV) operates Hindi news channel, India News and six regional news channels in northern and central India. ITV's managing director, Sharma, also heads GMI (Good Morning Media India) that publishes the daily, Aaj Samaj.