Bloomberg announces partnership with Quintillion Media to create BloombergQuint

Bloomberg Media today announced the formation of BloombergQuint, in partnership with Quintillion Media, India's digital news venture founded by serial entrepreneur Raghav Bahl. The partnership will cover broadcast, digital, and live events across India, serving business and financial news to one of the fastest-growing economies in the world.

As per the new arrangement, which commenced on April 1, BloombergQuint will harness the unrivalled global resources of Bloomberg with Quintillion Media's deep market experience to create a revamped business news channel and digital destination for India's growing business audience.

"At Bloomberg, we've set out to build the leading multi-platform global business and financial media company. Currently, almost half our digital traffic comes from outside the United States, and this figure continues to grow. It was clear when we met (Raghav) Bahl that we shared a common vision to create India's premier digitally-led multi-platform business media company. Partnering with Quintillion Media in India is a game-changer for the country's digital and broadcast media industries, and for Bloomberg Media globally, as we take our investment to an exciting new phase," says Justin B Smith, chief executive officer, Bloomberg Media, in a press release.

David Merritt, executive editor, Bloomberg News, Asia-Pacific, says in a press release, "As the fastest-growing major economy in the world, India is one of the most important stories we are covering in Asia. I'm glad we are partnering with Bahl and his team who have deep experience reporting on India for the past two decades."

Talking about the new venture, Bahl says in a press release, "The combination of Bloomberg Media with Quintillion Media is a powerful one. It will bring a completely new brand of journalism and media experience to India's increasingly sophisticated business consumer. We will deliver content via technology in a digital-first model that will re-define this space."

Bahl, who founded and scaled the Network18 Group went on to co-found the digital media company Quintillion Media in 2014 along with his wife Ritu Kapur (chief executive officer).

Parry Ravindranathan, managing director, Bloomberg Media International, in a press release, says, "Bahl really pioneered the business news genre in broadcast and digital in India. If you combine that with Bloomberg's deep experience and global leadership in business and financial news and data, this is a powerful combination -- especially at this moment when global interest in India is at an all-time high. This also comes at a fortuitous time when Bloomberg celebrates 20 years in India. We will continue to break new ground and deliver great content in Asia's fastest-growing market."

BloombergQuint plans to launch a new business channel, localised website, and live events business in 2016, focussing on high-quality, market moving digital business news content for India's business and financial professionals. The company has hired former CNBC-TV18 chief executive officer Anil Uniyal and former CNBC-TV18 executive editor Menaka Doshi to serve as BloombergQuint's chief executive officer and managing editor, respectively. Harsha Subramaniam, the Bloomberg executive producer looking after Bloomberg TV India for the past five years, will oversee the partnership for Bloomberg across platforms.