CNN extends partnership with IBN in India

New Delhi: India's leading English news channel CNN-IBN and the World leader in television news CNN have renewed their partnership.

CNN-IBN & CNN's joint presence will continue in India and will offer a global approach to journalism with a refreshed CNN-IBN. It will enable CNN-IBN, India's only news channel with an international outlook, to provide the opportunity to its viewers to stay ahead on world as well as domestic affairs.

CNN entered India by partnering with IBN, an English-language news channel launched by Network18, in 2005. From day one, CNN-IBN established itself as a news channel with a difference and became number one in record time of just six months. CNN-IBN & CNN together set a benchmark for the rest in Indian media.

Explaining the renewed partnership, a statement by Network18 said, "TV18, one of India's leading television broadcast networks and CNN International, the number one international news brand today announced the extension of their collaboration on CNN-IBN. In this relationship, the two sides will strive to take the partnership to next level, enabling CNN-IBN viewers to stay ahead on news from around the world and across multi-platform."

Announcing the extension, Adil Zainulbhai, Chairman of Network18 said, "We are delighted to announce the renewal of this extremely cherished partnership between two most respected brands in journalism. In this second term of our collaboration, we aim to present a brand new CNN-IBN that will bring news with even greater speed, accuracy, clarity and credibility and keep the viewers tuned to global developments much ahead of others. We also intend to cut through the noise and clutter that is currently present in the Indian television news space and offer best practices of journalism that will lead to better understanding of issues. The channel will organize meaningful debates and raise issues that touch the lives of our viewers. With this renewed partnership, we will enhance the process of newsgathering and delivering it to our viewers by informing and enlightening."

Speaking on the occasion, Rani Raad, Chief Commercial Officer of CNN International said, "We are delighted to have entered into another long term partnership with TV18 that builds on the success we have achieved already for CNN-IBN. We embark on this next chapter with a new management team and a renewed determination to double down on our investments to refresh the brand and support TV18 in ramping up their digital initiatives in 2016 so as to further enhance relevance for the global-minded Indian audience. I'm delighted CNN-IBN is staying in our family of CNN-branded channels around the world that includes CNN Turk, CNN Chile, CNN Philippines, CNN Indonesia and CNN Greece."

The renewed collaboration will see CNN-IBN benefit from its global partner in many ways. Not only will there be synergy in television, the IBN network will be able to raise its knowledge bar and stay ahead of the news curve with the following initiatives:

- Access to CNN's reporters and senior editors around the world to provide international perspective

- Access to some of CNN's best global shows, esteemed guests and analysts

- During breaking news, the channel will be the first to get live reports and discussions in real time from CNN studios around the world

- CNN will provide the technical knowhow and training to CNN-IBN anchors and editors

- Revamp of systems and processes to make them more efficient and in line with global standards

CNN-IBN's Zakka Jacob and CNN's Fareed Zakaria on CNN-IBN

In the past ten years, CNN and CNN-IBN have broken several big stories and covered hundreds of big events together. Be it the dastardly 26/11 Mumbai attack, visit of Presidents George Bush and Barack Obama, several terror attacks in India and abroad, dozens of International summits, US Presidential elections, 2009 & 2014 Lok Sabha polls, the global economy meltdown of 2008, cyclones, floods, biggest entertainment stories from across the globe, citizen journalist stories and much more.

IBNLive.com homepage on November 28, 2008.

Commenting on the extension of relationship, the Network18 management said: "CNN and the new management at TV18 have renewed interest and a new found commitment to invest together and further in the brand we jointly built. We firmly believe that CNN-IBN's position is a strength to build upon, and are planning new initiatives to ensure the channels continued success across platforms. Today's announcement marries that quest for continuity, as well as pressing the "refresh" button in a significant way."

On the duration of the renewed contract, the Network18 management said: "We are bound by contractual confidentiality and are not in a position to share these details of our agreement but let's be clear, it is not a short-term-agreement." The earlier agreement was for 10 years.

"With this renewed partnership, CNN-IBN will continue to bring news with greater speed, accuracy, clarity and credibility. It will also continue to cut through the noise and clutter to offer world-class journalism. The new partnership aims to help ramp up TV18's digital initiatives for the global-minded Indian audience as the company is betting big on digital. With this relationship, CNN-IBN will have access to CNN's reach to 395 million households across the globe. It is the highest reach for any news channel in India," the Network18 management said.

The management further added that "CNN and the new management at TV18 will continue to invest together and further in the brand we jointly build. Today's announcement marries quest for continuity as well as pressing the 'refresh' button. The agreement remains the same, brand licensing and content sharing partnership and it is going to be a long-term collaboration to keep CNN-IBN's globally savvy viewers to stay ahead. The new leadership also wants to broaden the various dimensions of the tie-up and plan new initiatives."

The announcement comes now after the report of termination of partnership in July this year, as earlier the parties didn't agree on a prolongation of the contract. In the new relationship, there will be no change in editorial control of the partnership and the editorial control will remain, as before, with the editorial team at CNN-IBN headed by CEO-News and group editor-in-chief, Rahul Joshi.

The renewed partnership with CNN will enable TV18 to have access to more resources on the ground and makes it the best 'networked' channel in India and one of the best in the World in the days to come. Together they continue to dominate the news scene in India and will be the first to break stories and report major developments.

In the next phase, CNN-IBN is planning to integrate cutting-edge standards and procedures to raise the standards of Indian TV journalism as the TV18 management wants to give the world a global-class news service.