Anyone who owns a TV would know about iTV Network. It was founded by one of India’s youngest media entrepreneur Kartikeya Sharma, in 2007, and ever since it has been growing at a rapid pace in terms of popularity and viewership. Kartikeya Sharma had a vision from the very beginning, which was to provide differentiated content to the people of India. iTV Network was set up at a time when media groups were criticized for political biases and for not providing authentic news. Sharma and his team saw this as a challenge and decided to give the people what they really wanted. When Kartikeya Sharma is asked about the secret of his success, he simply says there is no such thing. Many underlying factors have contributed to getting iTV Network to the position where it is now. Even though iTV Network is his best work, Sharma diversely branched out to other fields as well, such as the sports industry, where he introduced the platform ProSportify with a view to creating new opportunities for Indian athletes looking for global exposure.
iTV Network is a huge umbrella of several media concerns, which include print and online publications as well. They also have a strong foothold in the entertainment field, with P Tunes and P Plus. But their national channels are their top products. Under iTV Network, there are two national news channels: India News, around-the-clock Hindi news channel under which there are six regional channels situated in Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab and Gujarat; and the other national channel is NewsX, an English-language news channel which also has a regional channel operating in Kannada. NewsX faced a rocky journey in the beginning, but it is now among the most successful news channels in the country. We will now see how Sharma and his team managed to pull this off.
The Beginnings and Rise of NewsX
After the rising popularity of India News, which launched in 2007, Sharma decided to take the next big step as he noticed that there was a need in the market for an English news channel that resonates with the youth of India. The purpose of NewsX was to provide content linked to issues that are important for the younger generations, which was something no other channel was doing. NewsX faced some backlash in the beginning, but iTV Network very quickly overcame that. Just a year after it came into existence, NewsX received its first award, in 2008, for Best News and Current Affairs. This was only the beginning of a successful run—NewsX has since been winning awards every year:
- In 2009, the channel won the News Reporter and Videographer of the Year award.
- In 2010, they won an award for Best News Documentary of the Year.
- In 2012, they won an award for Best Investigative Film at the News and Television Awards.
- In 2013, they again won for Best Investigative News Report at the NT awards.
- 2014 was a milestone for NewsX as they received the highest accolade, the Best News Channel of the Year award at the ENBA Awards. Mr. Rishabh Gulati was also the proud recipient of the Young Professional of the Year at the same event.
- In 2016, they had a stream of awards coming in. Kartikeya Sharma won for the News Television CEO of the Year award. They won more awards for the best young professional, best continuing coverage by a reporter and best talk show for The Roundtable, which airs on NewsX.
- In 2016, they also won a Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism award for best political reporting.
- In 2017, they again won an award for the best English talk show for The Roundtable.
- Their most recent award in 2018 was for the best In-Depth Series in English, for their reports on the NPA Files.
‘News, Not Noise’ – NewsX
iTV Network’s Kartikeya Sharma and his team had a clear goal from the very beginning. Their motto ‘News, Not Noise’ promised to deliver authentic news, not fake news, with a crisp format, direct reportage, pointed debates, along with taking up trending issues in an engaging manner.
They were able to transform the traditional one-way form of communication as they made their channel highly interactive. By doing this, iTV Network took NewsX to the next level and set an example for other news channels to follow.
NewsX fosters a team of dedicated and talented news professionals comprising many youngsters, as Sharma’s intentions were to mold these people into media entrepreneurs of the future. NewsX features one of the best line-ups of on-air experts. They are relentless when it comes to pursuing news that invariably ends up setting the news agenda for the nation.
