TV 18 in talks to buy out Crisil wire service
Television 18, owner of the business news channel CNBC, is in talks with rating agency Crisil to take over its news wire service Crisil MarketWire (CMW).
This comes close on the heels of another broadcast company Zee acquiring news agency UNI.
International credit rating agency Standard & Poor’s (S&P) holds the majority stake in Crisil.
Both the companies have already formed an alliance and are now exploring various opportunities including transfer of ownership of CMW to Television 18. The other possibilities included transfer of CMW’s workforce to Television 18 and using the distribution channel of Television Eighteen.
Crisil CEO and Managing Director R Ravimohan said all options were being explored but declined to comment on the contours of the deal that is likely to be struck between the two entities.
Raghav Bahl, Managing Director of Television 18 also declined to comment on possible acquisition of CMW. He said: “As of now, we have collaborated to form products jointly. This initiative will be two-way flow from both the parties and will be beneficial for TV 18 shareholders. We have got tremendous expertise in it.”
CMW is the new avatar of the erstwhile Bridge News. The core team of journalists from Bridge News shifted to Crisil in 2001 when the news agency closed shop in India and formed CMW. It used to support its news with database sourced from India Quotation System (IQS).
“Reuters has recently bought IQS and this has queered the pitch for CMW as its subscribers would like to have data along with news which it is not in a position to offer now,” said a media analyst.
CMW provides domestic financial newswire in India with a team of 35 journalists, according to its website. Sources said if the talks on an outright did not yield any result there could be an arrangement whereby the entire team of CMW would be shifted to Television 18. “This is in sync with Television 18’s business model,” the analyst pointed out.
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