Billionaire Gautam Adani’s Bid for Indian News Channel Sparks Concerns for Its Independence
NEW DELHI—India’s sprawling Adani Group conglomerate is seeking to take control of one of the country’s first 24-hour news channels, apparently surprising the outlet’s founders and raising concerns among journalists about the channel’s future editorial independence.
Chaired by Gautam Adani, India’s wealthiest man, and with interests spanning energy to ports, the Adani Group is widely seen as close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. It has now acquired nearly a one-third share of New Delhi Television Ltd., better known as NDTV, through a complex chain of transactions rooted in a loan the channel’s founders took out over a decade ago.
A unit of the Adani Group’s media holding company exercised warrants that gave it ownership of a holding company with a 29% stake in NDTV, the Adani media unit said on Tuesday. Under Indian securities rules, that triggered an open offer to acquire another 26% of the company’s shares, which would give it a controlling stake in the news channel.
“With its leading position in news and its strong and diverse reach across genres and geographies, NDTV is the most suitable broadcast and digital platform to deliver on our vision,” the Adani unit said.
The Adani Group didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment.
NDTV told its newsroom on Tuesday it was given no advance notice of the move. The founders, Radhika and Prannoy Roy, hold around 32% of the company.
“The developments of today are entirely unexpected for NDTV, and for Radhika and Prannoy. As recently as yesterday, NDTV informed the stock exchanges that its founders had not changed any part of their shareholding in NDTV,” said an internal email seen by The Wall Street Journal. “We are in the process of evaluating the next steps, many of which involve regulatory and legal processes.”
NDTV began as a news production company founded in the 1980s by the Roys, a husband and wife team who shook up news broadcasting in India beginning with a weekly news program on India’s state-run channel. As India liberalized broadcasting rules, the couple produced a 24-hour news channel in 1998 in cooperation with Star India (then owned by News Corporation, the predecessor to the current parent company of the Journal). NDTV later became a broadcaster in its own right, launching the NDTV 24X7 channel nearly two decades ago.
The group also started a 24-hour Hindi language news channel and business channel, and listed in 2004. Many of its anchors became household names, while some of its highest-profile journalists went on to found rival news channels.
The channel came to be known for its scrutiny of politicians, and for its extensive coverage of the massacre of Muslims during the 2002 religious riots in the state of Gujarat, where Mr. Modi was then serving as chief minister.
Journalists in the newsroom said they were stunned by the news, with many wondering what ownership by the conglomerate would mean for the channel. NDTV has a reputation as being one of the few remaining bastions of independent journalism in India. News outlets in recent years have come under increasing pressure under the BJP government to curtail unfavorable coverage, said Sukumar Muralidharan, a journalism professor at O.P. Jindal Global University in Sonipat, India.
“It was respected for its independence, and its willingness to criticize those in power,” Mr. Muralidharan said. “So losing that is a major setback for the Indian media as a whole.”
Spokespeople for the BJP didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. The BJP has previously said that coverage of its government by some news outlets is biased.
A senior journalist at a prominent news outlet said that corporate ownership of a news publication isn’t necessarily troubling, but raises more concerns when “corporations that have hugely diversified corporate interests and touch the lives of millions of people” acquire news businesses.
“If these outlets do not investigate or be rational or objective about the other businesses of the conglomerates, that is the worrisome part to me,” said the journalist. “The firewalls that exist between the editorial side and business interests are not so strong in India.”
The planned acquisition echoed the takeover of the newsgroup Network18 Media and Investments Ltd., by Reliance Industries, India’s largest conglomerate, in May 2014, the month that the BJP won national elections in a landslide. The network runs a number of prominent news channels, including some in cooperation with U.S. broadcasters such as NBCUniversal and CNN.
Write to Tripti Lahiri at [email protected] and Shan Li at [email protected]
Copyright ©2022 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
NEW DELHI—India’s sprawling Adani Group conglomerate is seeking to take control of one of the country’s first 24-hour news channels, apparently surprising the outlet’s founders and raising concerns among journalists about the channel’s future editorial independence.
Chaired by Gautam Adani, India’s wealthiest man, and with interests spanning energy to ports, the Adani Group is widely seen as close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. It has now acquired nearly a one-third share of New Delhi Television Ltd., better known as NDTV, through a complex chain of transactions rooted in a loan the channel’s founders took out over a decade ago.
A unit of the Adani Group’s media holding company exercised warrants that gave it ownership of a holding company with a 29% stake in NDTV, the Adani media unit said on Tuesday. Under Indian securities rules, that triggered an open offer to acquire another 26% of the company’s shares, which would give it a controlling stake in the news channel.
“With its leading position in news and its strong and diverse reach across genres and geographies, NDTV is the most suitable broadcast and digital platform to deliver on our vision,” the Adani unit said.
The Adani Group didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment.
NDTV told its newsroom on Tuesday it was given no advance notice of the move. The founders, Radhika and Prannoy Roy, hold around 32% of the company.
“The developments of today are entirely unexpected for NDTV, and for Radhika and Prannoy. As recently as yesterday, NDTV informed the stock exchanges that its founders had not changed any part of their shareholding in NDTV,” said an internal email seen by The Wall Street Journal. “We are in the process of evaluating the next steps, many of which involve regulatory and legal processes.”
NDTV began as a news production company founded in the 1980s by the Roys, a husband and wife team who shook up news broadcasting in India beginning with a weekly news program on India’s state-run channel. As India liberalized broadcasting rules, the couple produced a 24-hour news channel in 1998 in cooperation with Star India (then owned by News Corporation, the predecessor to the current parent company of the Journal). NDTV later became a broadcaster in its own right, launching the NDTV 24X7 channel nearly two decades ago.
The group also started a 24-hour Hindi language news channel and business channel, and listed in 2004. Many of its anchors became household names, while some of its highest-profile journalists went on to found rival news channels.
The channel came to be known for its scrutiny of politicians, and for its extensive coverage of the massacre of Muslims during the 2002 religious riots in the state of Gujarat, where Mr. Modi was then serving as chief minister.
Journalists in the newsroom said they were stunned by the news, with many wondering what ownership by the conglomerate would mean for the channel. NDTV has a reputation as being one of the few remaining bastions of independent journalism in India. News outlets in recent years have come under increasing pressure under the BJP government to curtail unfavorable coverage, said Sukumar Muralidharan, a journalism professor at O.P. Jindal Global University in Sonipat, India.
“It was respected for its independence, and its willingness to criticize those in power,” Mr. Muralidharan said. “So losing that is a major setback for the Indian media as a whole.”
Spokespeople for the BJP didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. The BJP has previously said that coverage of its government by some news outlets is biased.
A senior journalist at a prominent news outlet said that corporate ownership of a news publication isn’t necessarily troubling, but raises more concerns when “corporations that have hugely diversified corporate interests and touch the lives of millions of people” acquire news businesses.
“If these outlets do not investigate or be rational or objective about the other businesses of the conglomerates, that is the worrisome part to me,” said the journalist. “The firewalls that exist between the editorial side and business interests are not so strong in India.”
The planned acquisition echoed the takeover of the newsgroup Network18 Media and Investments Ltd., by Reliance Industries, India’s largest conglomerate, in May 2014, the month that the BJP won national elections in a landslide. The network runs a number of prominent news channels, including some in cooperation with U.S. broadcasters such as NBCUniversal and CNN.
Write to Tripti Lahiri at [email protected] and Shan Li at [email protected]
Copyright ©2022 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
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