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Reuters and Times of India Group to Launch Indian TV News Channel; The New Channel Will Serve India's Growing Urban Audience

Monday, April 25, 2005

LONDON (Business Wire) -- Reuters has agreed to acquire a 26 per cent equity stake in The Times Global Broadcasting Co Ltd, the news broadcasting company of the Times of India Group which is set to launch a news channel later this year. Reuters will also supply branded programming to the channel, in a deal designed to support its strategy of growing its consumer media business.

The new channel is set to take advantage of the huge growth in India's cable TV market, now the world's third largest with 44 million subscribers and growing. Its revenues will come from subscriptions revenues and advertising sales.

Broadcasting initially in English language, the news and current affairs channel will target the growing urban television audience. The 24-hour channel will operate from dual centres in Mumbai and Delhi, supported by bureaux around the country.

The channel will include Reuters branded programming from across the world. Reuters established its first news bureau in India in 1866 and today has five bureaux in key cities across the country. Its financial information and news business employs 821 people in India.

The Times of India Group publishes the largest English language broadsheet newspaper in the world. It has interests in magazines, radio, music, the internet and retail. Its website www.indiatimes.com is the largest in India, and the largest mobile value added services provider in the country.

The closely held company is investing in a portfolio of premium cable channels targeted at the urban Indian audience. The first of these, Zoom, was launched late last year and is already available in over 22m homes across India. The launch of the new channel marks the Groups' entry into news broadcasting.

Chris Ahearn, President of Reuters Media, said "Reuters has been doing business in India for almost 140 years and is synonymous with trusted, independent and accurate information. Working with the Times Group in this way enables us to enter India's dynamic broadcast industry and reach its rapidly growing, information hungry, audience. This investment marks an exciting new chapter for our media business in India and is a key step in growing our global direct to consumer business."

Vineet Jain, Managing Director of The Times of India Group, said, " We have built our heritage and standing with generations of Indians the world over through our flagship newspaper. This TV channel is the natural next step in offering our news to a rapidly growing and discerning urban audience. This is a great coming together of two of the world's strongest news brands."

The agreement is subject to regulatory approval as necessary, due diligence and contract.

Financial advisor on the agreement are Lazard India for Reuters and JM Morgan Stanley for Times of India Group.

Notes to Editors

Reuters

Reuters (www.reuters.com), the global information company, provides indispensable information tailored for professionals in the financial services, media and corporate markets. Its trusted information drives decision making across the globe based on a reputation for speed, accuracy and independence. Reuters has 14,500 staff in 91 countries. This includes 2,300 editorial staff in 196 bureaux serving 129 countries, making Reuters the world's largest international multimedia news agency. In 2004, Reuters Group revenues were GBP 2.9 billion.

Reuters and the sphere logo are the trade-marks of the Reuters group of companies.

The Times Group

The Times of India group is the largest media conglomerate in South Asia. The 170 year old group has evolved over the years from being a newspaper company to being a multimedia business house with interests in newspapers, magazines, music, interactive, retail, radio and the internet. Its flagship brand The Times of India is world's largest circulated English daily. The Economic Times is world's second largest business newspaper. Most of its other businesses like radio and internet are leaders by far in these markets. Recently, the group marked its entry into the television medium through its glamour and lifestyle channel Zoom and will soon launch a news & current affairs channel. The group has relationships with international majors like Wall Street Journal, BBC, The Economist and Disney.

Reuters
Susan Allsopp, Tel: + 44 207 542 8404
susan.allsopp@reuters.com
or
Times of India Group
Vishakha Singh, Tel: + 91 9820100941
vishakha.singh@timesgroup.com