Amrit Ghosal joins Hindi news and infotainment channel CNEB

Ghosal has put in his papers at Rashtriya Sahara

Amrit Ghosal is all set to join Complete News and Entertainment Broadcast (CNEB), the newly launched news and infotainment channel. He is joining the organisation as vice-president, sales and marketing.

For the record, CNEB is the television venture of Complete News & Entertainment Broadcast Pvt. Ltd, part of the HBN Group, which has interests in diverse areas such as media, housing and insurance.

Before his move to CNEB, Ghosal was vice-president, sales and marketing, Rashtriya Sahara, the Hindi newspaper from the Sahara Group.

Amrit Ghosal

Speaking to afaqs! about his new assignment, Ghosal says, "My job at the newly launched channel is to streamline the revenue system. To begin with, we need to firm up our programming lineup to attract top brands on the channel. We will also be looking at attracting the so-called second line brands, as my experience says that ad spends by these players have increased considerably."

Ghosal shares that CNEB is a news and infotainment channel and targets viewers in HSM (Hindi speaking markets) across the country. For him, infotainment is a large chunk of the programming, supplementing the news on the channel. The infotainment content will comprise credible shows that will attract family viewing.

Ghosal makes his point when he says, "News channels are today pushing comedy shows and other entertainment fare in the name of news. We will completely avoid that because if one has to do that, then why call oneself a news channel and confuse the viewers?"

The 24-hour Hindi channel saw a soft launch in April. Ghosal reveals that the channel has to first strike a chord with the audience, and from there on, the marketing efforts will be doubled to attract advertisers. As per the rules, once the channel is six months old, the marketing team will try and get some big government advertisers on board, too.

Ghosal has 14 years of experience in the various functions of sales and marketing, having worked with Rashtriya Sahara, Zee Jagran and Planman Media. His stint in marketing started with a job at Onida. From there, he moved to the India Today Group in 1993 and subsequently worked as a senior sales and marketing person with newspapers such as The Indian Express and Asian Age.

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