The one-month old baby of Rajdeep Sardesai, CNN-IBN had already struck a chord with its audiences. Four weeks after the launch, the channel managed to create a major dent in NDTV’s progression as the market leader, by capturing 8% of the news market, a drastic acquisition according to market experts. The channel gradually started gaining wide acceptance not only in India but also in Asia. The Human Plough story was followed up by CNN Asia as one of the stories of the year. This gave CNN-IBN enough impetus and encouragement to widen its shores and firmly entrench its position in the viewer’s minds. According to a survey conducted by TAM, India’s leading television rating agency, CNN-IBN managed to acquire a large chunk of loyalists from their previous preferred choice – NDTV and by January 2006, it became the average Indian viewer’s preferred English news channel.
During the post-launch period, CNN-IBN also managed to perform a journalist’s basic job profile – to keep the government in check, by breaking scams and scandals that would rock Parliament regularly. Some of the major scandals broken by the channel within two months of existence were the Volcker UN oil-for-food scam involving the Congress party and the then Union Minister for External Affairs Natwar Singh. To supplement this, they also broke the MPLADS Scam and the Money-for-Questions scam early this year. This reflected the channel’s mentality and spirit of whatever it takes to relay news that affects the lives of the citizens.
The channel is largely identified by its professionals as “highly journalist-driven and viewer-oriented”. As Rajdeep Sardesai, the Editor-in-Chief of CNN-IBN highlights in an interview to Indiantelevision.com, “We are trying to bring in a certain passion and joy to news and news gathering. Please come and share this experience with us. This is a journey. We are not claiming to have arrived at our final destination. We are only claiming to be a channel that is committed to news.” The channel identifies its USP to be the four-letter word called NEWS.
During the post-launch period, CNN-IBN also managed to perform a journalist’s basic job profile – to keep the government in check, by breaking scams and scandals that would rock Parliament regularly. Some of the major scandals broken by the channel within two months of existence were the Volcker UN oil-for-food scam involving the Congress party and the then Union Minister for External Affairs Natwar Singh. To supplement this, they also broke the MPLADS Scam and the Money-for-Questions scam early this year. This reflected the channel’s mentality and spirit of whatever it takes to relay news that affects the lives of the citizens.
The channel is largely identified by its professionals as “highly journalist-driven and viewer-oriented”. As Rajdeep Sardesai, the Editor-in-Chief of CNN-IBN highlights in an interview to Indiantelevision.com, “We are trying to bring in a certain passion and joy to news and news gathering. Please come and share this experience with us. This is a journey. We are not claiming to have arrived at our final destination. We are only claiming to be a channel that is committed to news.” The channel identifies its USP to be the four-letter word called NEWS.