Bloomberg in India Deal with UTV

NEW YORK/MUMBAI: Indian media giant UTV has aligned with Bloomberg for its local business news channel UTVi, which next month will be rebranded Bloomberg-UTV, delivering real-time business, economic and political news to households across the country.

The deal combines UTVi’s local newsgathering, production and distribution expertise with the deep financial news capabilities and global reach of Bloomberg. The channel will feature elements from Bloomberg Television’s worldwide network. In addition, the UTVi.com, the fastest growing financial portal in India, will be re-branded as bloombergutv.com with enhanced content from Bloomberg.

"The Bloomberg Television network is excited to be joining forces with UTV in providing a business and financial news channel with remarkable breadth and depth of reporting for the Indian market," said Andy Lack, the CEO of Bloomberg’s Multimedia group. "We will welcome 30 million households in India to Bloomberg’s community of more than 200 million television households, who make up the most affluent and influential audience in the world. By working with UTV to realize our shared vision for business and financial television, Bloomberg renews its commitment to delivering business, economic and political news and analysis to viewers in India, and at the same time to delivering news about one of the world’s most dynamic economies to investors across the globe."

Ronnie Screwvala, the chairman of UTV News, added: "The addition of 14-15 million television sets every year and a rapid change of preference in favor of premium channels will drive viewership of business news in India. This is where our association with Bloomberg, clearly the world’s biggest and most credible business news brand, will create impact for the India market. We are thrilled about this collaboration and believe the audience in India will strongly benefit from the news, analysis and the world’s most powerful business analytics tools that Bloomberg brings to bear."