Who’s to blame — Arnab or us?

2005.

India was evolving. The news industry was exploding. It was clear, private news (besides state run Doordarshan) wasn’t going to be limited to New Delhi Television (NDTV), the first mover in private news space — whose rise, from a weekly hour long spot in Doordarshan in the 80s (The World This Week), to running a channel on Murdoch’s Star network (Star News), to starting their own channel (NDTV), was a story worth writing reams about.

But that’s for another day.

India was ready for the News explosion. And the model to emulate was (obviously) the cable news model of USA, where each network is promoted by established conglomerates and they carve out a specific corner/ voice/ stance for themselves (right, left, center) as their identity. However, as they evolved there were more networks (MSNBC, CNN, NBC etc) who inclined towards the left (liberal, progressive) and the right (conservatives), besides some old networks, did not have a platform focused on their POV.

That was a massive business opportunity - while the left/liberal base toggle between various channels, what if there’s one channel that captures the entire right base? It will be big... the biggest media pie in US.

And that opportunity got two shrewd and calculating minds together.