BloombergQuint and Republic: A tale of two news companies
Much talked about but not as well understood, the media business is a microcosm of the complex country that is India
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Editor's note: In April 2016, Bloomberg Media and Quintillion Media got together with the ambition of launching a business news television channel in India, built on the foundation of a digital media newsroom. In November that year, Republic TV was announced. Within weeks of its application to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Republic (run by ARG Outlier Media Asianet News Pvt. Ltd) got the go-ahead for a TV channel. The partnership of popular news anchor Arnab Ranjan Goswami (ARG) and politician Rajeev Chandrashekhar, eventually launched in May 2017 and found an audience easier than how Jesus found his disciples. BloombergQuint, on the other hand, never made it to television screens. It wasn’t for the lack of trying. Like Republic, BQ too had filed its application with the ministry. And after a year or so of trying, it even tried to take a shortcut by acquiring a licence from another company. Didn’t work. Just a couple of years old now, Republic is doing well. In the year ended 31 March 2019, the company recorded revenue of Rs 200 crore ($27.9 million), up …
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