Aaj Tak
Aaj Tak logo.png
CountryIndia
Broadcast areaIndia and international
HeadquartersNoida, Uttar Pradesh, India
Programming
Language(s)Hindi
Picture format16:9 (1080i HDTV)
4:3 (576i SDTV)
Ownership
OwnerLiving Media
Sister channelsIndia Today
Tez
Dilli Aaj Tak
Good News Today/GNT
History
Launched31 December 2000; 21 years ago (2000-12-31) (New Year's Eve 2000)
Links
Webcastwww.aajtak.in/livetv
Websitewww.aajtak.in

Aaj Tak (transl. Until today) is an Indian Hindi-language news channel owned by TV Today Network, part of the New Delhi-based media conglomerate Living Media group (India Today Group).

Aajtak HD

On 14 December 2018, Aaj Tak launched India's first Hindi high-definition channel, Aaj Tak HD.[1] Aaj Tak HD broadcasts News & 2 extra Shows like Duniya Aajtak aires from 2019 (transl. World up to the minute) covering world news, Business Aajtak aires from 2019 (transl. Business up to the minute) covering the financial news of India & Worldwide. Aajtak HD also broadcast Movie Masala aired between 2019 & 2020 (transl. Movie Spice) covering the news of Bollywood.

History

Aaj Tak was first broadcast on DD Metro of Doordarshan (DD) in the year 1995. This was then broadcast as a news program of 10 to 20 minutes. Aaj Tak came into existence in December 1999 as an independent news channel and then it became the first complete Hindi news channel in the country to be broadcast twenty four hours. One of the anchors at the time was Surendra Pratap Singh.[2][3] The tagline for Aaj Tak was "Yeh thi news aaj tak, Intzar kijiye kal tak" (transl. That's all the news for today, wait until tomorrow).[2] Aaj Tak was the first news channel in India to use OB vans.[4]

By the time the channel came into existence, it had a reach of 52 lakh households and since then it has become the channel to broadcast in 3 crore households and its viewership in news channels is 56%.[3] On 14 December 2018, Aaj Tak launched India's first Hindi high-definition channel, Aaj Tak HD.[1] A channel rebranding took place in January 2021.[5]

Staff

Executive staff

Notable staff

Past anchors have included Rohit Sardana[6] and Surendra Pratap Singh.[2] Uday Shankar has worked as a news director during the initial years of Aaj Tak.[4]

Controversies

In November 2015, a video came online showing an Aaj Tak reporter bribing a kid with money to purchase liquor in order to convince him to give a negative statement against a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader, for which the channel received condemnation.[7][8]

The channel was fined ₹1 lakh and asked to broadcast apologies for fake news regarding Sushant Singh Rajput. The channel published fabricated last tweets by the actor on the channel, claiming that they were made by him a few days before his death and then deleted. Aaj Tak later removed its article with this fake news published in it.[9]

Aaj Tak fined ₹ 5 lakh by BARC (Broadcast Audience Research Council) for viewership manipulation in a TRP scam.[10]

Accolades

According to a 2006 poll jointly conducted by the BBC and Reuters, of specific news sources spontaneously mentioned by Indians, Aaj Tak(mentioned by 11%) was the most trusted.[11]

Aaj Tak has won the award for "Best Hindi News Channel" 19 times since 2001 at the Indian Television Academy Awards.[12]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b "Aaj Tak launches first of its kind HD news channel - Aaj Tak HD". AdGully. 14 December 2018. Archived from the original on 25 July 2019. Retrieved 25 August 2021.
  2. ^ a b c Singh, Dr Paramveer (5 August 2021). "8. India Today Group.". Indian Silver Screen. K.K. Publications. pp. 147–150.
  3. ^ a b "Television". India Today Group. Archived from the original on 23 August 2021. Retrieved 3 May 2021.
  4. ^ a b Munshi, Shoma (15 December 2012). "1". Remote Control: Indian Television in the New Millennium. Penguin UK. ISBN 978-81-8475-755-2.
  5. ^ Baddhan, Lakh (21 January 2021). "Aaj Tak refreshes brand with new look for 20th anniversary". BizAsia. Archived from the original on 21 January 2021. Retrieved 18 April 2021.
  6. ^ Bhati, Divya (2 May 2021). "RIP Aaj Tak TV Journalist Rohit Sardana died due to Heart Attack after suffering from Covid-19". jagrantv. Archived from the original on 25 August 2021. Retrieved 25 August 2021.
  7. ^ "Exposed Aaj Tak journalist tutoring a poor child to give a bite against the government". Readoo. Archived from the original on 28 March 2019. Retrieved 25 August 2021.
  8. ^ Roy, Shayan (4 November 2015). "This Leaked Video Shows A Reporter Offering A Boy Money In Return For A Staged Interview". BuzzFeed. Archived from the original on 4 November 2015. Retrieved 25 August 2021.
  9. ^ "Aaj Tak fined Rs 1 lakh by NBSA for telecasting fake tweets on Sushant Singh Rajput's death". The New Indian Express. 8 October 2020. Archived from the original on 11 October 2020. Retrieved 25 October 2020.
  10. ^ Joshi, Neha (23 October 2020). "Aaj tak fined for viewership manipulation". Bar and Bench. Retrieved 25 October 2020.((cite web)): CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  11. ^ BBC/Reuters/Media Center Poll: Trust in the Media (pg. 13)
  12. ^ "Aaj Tak, India Today win most popular news channels at ITA Awards 2021; Aroon Purie conferred Hall of Fame award". Business Today. 14 February 2021. Archived from the original on 25 August 2021. Retrieved 25 August 2021.

External links

Television news in India
Categories