Times Now exits UK TV market to focus on digital

Times Network-owned English news channel Times Now has exited the UK TV market earlier this week as it looks to digital to grow its presence in the market.

UK is the second most important for Indian broadcasters after the US. The country has a large Indian diaspora which makes it a lucrative foreign market for the Indian TV channels.

Times Now has discontinued from the Sky platform, however, it will be available to viewers in the UK through the mobile app directly and through third-party content aggregators.

Confirming the news to TelevisionPost.com, a Times Network spokesperson said Times Now has discontinued the TV channel in the UK. “The UK market has great potential for digital hence we are planning to focus only on digital. It is better to focus on one thing that is working than on five different avenues. For now on, Times Now will continue to stream digitally on the mobile app as well as third-party digital apps,” the spokesperson said.

Times Now made its international debut with the launch in the US in 2011. It launched in Australia in the same year. The channel launched in the UK in November 2015.

In 2017, the channel marked its presence in 100 countries with the launch in Europe. The channel reached out to a potential audience of 1.4 million Indians in mainland Europe in countries like Belgium, Germany, France, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland taking the international footprint to 10 million on 5 continents.

At the time of its launch in the UK, Times Network MD and CEO MK Anand had said, “The expansion of the channel in the UK market, for us, is the most important one since we launched in America in 2011, our International debut. The UK is probably our biggest diaspora market. With this launch, we have just started building our presence in the European market and we intend to enter France and Germany too by next year.”