The Indian Youth Congress has served legal notice to Sudhir Chaudhary, Consulting Editor, Aaj Tak, for allegedly defaming party leader Rahul Gandhi.

The notice states that civil and criminal proceedings will be initiated against the channel and the anchor unless they delete the video from all platforms, telecast an unconditional apology from the channel, and post it on Twitter.

The legal notice, sent on Sunday, added that the channel’s official Twitter handle had also posted a video of the clip from Sudhir’s show ‘Black and White’ wherein he can be seen comparing Rahul Gandhi with someone who has been accused and caught for an offence of robbery.

“You have deliberately and maliciously compared Mr Rahul Gandhi with someone accused and caught for an offence of robbery even though you are fully aware that Mr Gandhi has been raising his objections to the offence committed by Nirav Modi and is seeking accountability from the Government of India,” read the notice.

The notice also mentions the remarks made by the anchor hours after Rahul Gandhi’s disqualification as an MP following his conviction in a defamation case. It points to what “appears to be a well-crafted conspiracy initiated at the behest of Mr Gandhi’s political opponent”, it read.

After the legal notice issued by the Indian Youth Congress to Sudhir Chaudhary, Consulting Editor, Aaj Tak, for allegedly defaming party leader Rahul Gandhi, Chaudhary took to Twitter to respond-“I am fighting for the voice of India. I am ready to pay any price”, he wrote.

The notice issued by Youth Congress states that civil and criminal proceedings will be initiated against the channel and the anchor unless they delete the video from all platforms, telecast an unconditional apology from the channel, and post it on Twitter.

“You have deliberately and maliciously compared Mr Rahul Gandhi with someone accused and caught for an offence of robbery even though you are fully aware that Mr Gandhi has been raising his objections to the offence committed by Nirav Modi and is seeking accountability from the Government of India,” read the notice.

The notice also mentions the remarks made by the anchor hours after Rahul Gandhi’s disqualification as an MP following his conviction in a defamation case. It points to what “appears to be a well-crafted conspiracy initiated at the behest of Mr Gandhi’s political opponent”, it read.

ABP’s senior news anchor Shobhana Yadav has quit and joined Zee News as senior news anchor. 

Yadav used to host the evening prime time show on ABP News. Rajnish Ahuja, Editor, Zee News confirmed this news to e4m.

Along with news anchoring, Shobhana Yadav is known for being a succesful film producer. Recently, the film 'Dasvin' produced by her was well received by the audience. Renowned Hindi cinema actor Abhishek Bachchan has played an important role in this fim.

Yadav started her career with India TV in 2003. She has also produced a bollywood film ‘Dear Maya’ in  2017 in which Manisha Koirala played the lead role.

The popular bollywood film ‘Batla House’ is based on the real life story of Shobhna Yadav and her husband Sanjeev Kumar Yadav who is a nine time gallantry award recipient.

U.K. Sinha and Dipali Goenka have been appointed Independent Directors of NDTV for a period of two years effective March 27, 2023, based on the recommendations of the Nomination and Remuneration Committee, and subject to the approval of shareholders and Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. U.K. Sinha has also been designated as Non-Executive Chairperson of NDTV. 

Sinha has served as the Chairman of Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) between 2011 and 2017. Under his stewardship, SEBI is credited with having brought in significant regulatory amendments in areas such as Takeover Code, Foreign Portfolio Investors and Alternate Investment Funds.

Goenka is the Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of Welspun India Limited. 

ZEE Media Corporation will be launching three channels, keeping in mind the elections scheduled in three states this year and the general elections set for next year.

As per media reports, the three channels were Zee News HD, and two others in Kannada and Telugu.

ZEE News has recently unveiled a new look, with a vibrant colour pallet and clear visuals.

According to the channel, the new design has been curated from the findings of a market research that provided insights into audience preference.

The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) has released a list of multi-system operators (MSOs) as per the status of their compliance to TRAI's interconnection regulation.

The ministry has advised broadcasters to enter into fresh interconnection or renewal agreements with only those MSOs who have complied with the above.

The interconnection regulation requires TV channel distributors to audit its subscriber management system, conditional access system and other related systems by an auditor in order to verify their monthly subscription reports.

As per a statement issued by MIB, "Many MSOs have failed to get registered on Digial India MIB portal". The MSOs have also not submitted the other required details, it says.

Ahead of IPL 2023, Multi-System Operators DEN Networks, Hathway Cable & Datacom and GTPL Hathway have reportedly informed their subscribers that they will be removing Star channels, including Star Sports from their basic packages from April 1.

It has to be noted that Star owns the TV rights to IPL and Reliance Industries’ Viacom18 has the digital rights. RIL also happens to own DEN and Hathway and has a 28% stake in GTPL Hathway.

The development is of significance since Viacom18 will stream the upcoming season of IPL on JioCinema for free.

According to Elara Capital's Karan Taurani, the removal of Star channels from the base package ahead of the IPL season may have a neutral impact in the worst case scenario. The move can also benefit Star if subscribers who want the television experience opts for a la carte or individual channels to watch IPL.

He also noted that post NTO implementation, only 8% of the customers moved to a la carte as India consumers are value centric. "92% of the consumers will still consume bouquet-based offering."

The move to remove Star channels from the basic packages may not have any big negative impact, says Taurani. "This is one genre which has stood out vs others which have reported a decline (especially Hindi GEC and movies) in the post covid era."