CNN-IBN Presents ‘Battle for the States’

After the completion of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the United States, the focus now shifts to the Assembly elections in Maharashtra and Haryana. While the BJP hopes to recreate its Lok Sabha poll magic in Maharashtra and Haryana, the Congress, which is the ruling party in both the states, is grappling with anti-incumbency. To highlight the ground reality of these poll bound states and the frame of mind of the voters, CNN-IBN presents ‘Battle for the States’ the most extensive programming on all the happenings around elections. The channel’s special programming including special documentaries, ground reports, pre-poll/exit poll along with the most exhaustive Counting Day coverage will bring to its viewers the most detailed analysis on these elections ensuring that the viewers get a ringside view of the same.

The Battle for the States programming line-up will have CNN-IBN’s flagship documentary show 30 Minutes present two special episodes on Maharashtra and Haryana. The show on Maharashtra will try to find out the key issues that face what is undoubtedly one of the most important states of the country and how these issues will impact the elections. The show on Haryana will try to take a look on the strong contrasts which this state has in terms of social and economic development, and what role this will play in the upcoming elections.

In other specials, CNN-IBN will be doing week-long programming titled ‘Eye on Mumbai’ which will focus on Mumbai and its political climate. CNN-IBN’s Mumbai Bureau Chief, Smitha Nair will anchor a prime time bulletin/segment every day for one week covering all the key election related stories from India’s financial capital. CNN-IBN has also planned a roundtable where Smitha will interact with the young politicians of Mumbai such as Priya Dutt, Poonam Mahajan, Aditya Thackeray & Milind Deora to know their take on the issues that might decide the way Mumbai will vote.

Another key component of the programming will be exclusive interviews with key political leaders from Maharashtra and Haryana such as Prithviraj Chavan, Nitin Gadkari, Uddhav Thackeray, Raj Thackeray, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, which will play under the Newsmakers Interviews series.

The channel will also conduct a pre-poll survey and an exit poll to know the mood of the voters in both the states along with comprehensive Counting Day coverage to give the viewers minute by minute details of the results as they comein. CNN-IBN will also incorporate various social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook extensively to increase voter engagement and inculcate awareness among the voters.

CNN-IBN has also started a special campaign under the name ‘Are You Registered to Vote?’ which is focused on increasing awareness among voters to register for vote. This will be followed by ‘Go Vote Campaign’ starting a week prior to the Polling Day, which will have a special half-hour show with the Election Commissioner along with celebrity appeals and citizen journalists urging people to register and cast their vote.

Don’t miss this special programming ‘Battle for the States’ till 19^th October, only on CNN-IBN.

About TV18:

The Network18 Group is a media and entertainment company with interests in television, internet, films, e-commerce, magazines, mobile content and allied businesses. Through its subsidiary ‘TV18 Broadcast Ltd.’ [BSE: 532800, NSE: TV18BRDCST], the group operates news channels - CNBC-TV18, CNBC Awaaz, CNBC-TV18 Prime HD, CNN-IBN, IBN7 and IBN-Lokmat (a Marathi regional news channel in partnership with the Lokmat group). TV18 also operates a joint venture with Viacom, called Viacom18, which houses a portfolio of popular entertainment channels – Colors, Colors HD,MTV, SONIC, Comedy Central, VH1, Nick. Nick Jr. and Nick Teen - and Viacom18 Motion Pictures, the group’s filmed entertainment business. TV18 has also forayed into the Indian factual entertainment space through A+E Networks | TV18 (a joint venture between A+E Networks and TV18 Broadcast) and operates HistoryTV18. TV18 and Viacom18 have also formed a strategic joint venture called IndiaCast, a multi-platform ‘content asset monetization’ entity mandated to drive domestic and international channels distribution, placement services and content syndication for the bouquet of channels from TV18, Viacom18 and other broadcasters.

For more information, please log on to www.network18online.com