Andhra Prabha gets MIB nod to launch English news channel

India Ahead News Pvt Ltd (IANPL) has got the ministry of information and broadcasting’s (MIB) approval to launch its South India focussed English news channel India Ahead News.

IANPL is owned by Andhra Prabha Publications Ltd, which publishes leading Telugu daily Andhra Prabha.

Andhra Prabha Publications had applied for a name change of licence to India Ahead News from Bhaarat Today. The application was approved in August. The company had received the uplinking/downlinking news licence in June 2011.

India Ahead News had recently gone on air with an end to end Karthavya automation solution. As part of a comprehensive solution, Karthavya delivered QuickEdge Automation, BMS, MAM & Archival, BLAZE NRCS, and Dell-EMC Storage.

Karthavya leveraged the enterprise IT equipment to provide a robust system which requires very less professional maintenance and provides the highest ROI in the long run.

The channel had soft-launched in July on select cable operators in South India like Hathway Cable and Datacom. It will also be available on direct to home (DTH) platforms Dish TV, Tata Sky, and Airtel Digital TV.

Owned by Goutam Mootha, India Ahead will mark the entry of Andhra Prabha Publication in the broadcast space. The channel’s head office is located in Hyderabad and the bureau office is in New Delhi with an employee strength of 200 people.

As reported earlier, the channel has made some key appointments. Chetan Sharma is the CEO and Editorial Director of the channel. Sharma has earlier worked with media houses such as Zee Business, NDTV and TV Today Network.

Senior journalist Sanket Upadhyay has been roped in as Managing Editor of the news channel. Prior to joining India Ahead, he was working with CNN-News18 as Deputy Executive Editor.

Saurav Sanyal is Executive Editor at the channel whereas Sana Khan has taken up the role of Senior News Editor. Brijesh Nigam has been appointed as the Head- Business Strategy. Brijesh Nigam has been appointed as the Head- Business Strategy.

The English news genre had seen a new entrant after a long time in 2017 with the launch of Arnab Goswami’s Republic TV. Apart from Republic TV, Mirror Now is also a new entrant in the genre. The genre also has established players like Times Now, India Today TV, CNN-News18, NDTV 24×7.