MUMBAI: Leading American television station Hearst Television has launched an "Election 2012" app featuring up-to-the-minute and in-depth election-related national content as well as content from the company‘s news stations in 25 markets stretching from Portland, Maine to Honolulu.

The advertising-supported Election 2012 app is available for free in the iTunes Store for iPhone users and the Google Play Store for Android users. Each station‘s local content is fed to the app using the content management system of Hearst Television partner company Internet Broadcasting.

The Election 2012 app is the latest feature of Hearst Television‘s Commitment 2012 election-coverage project, a renewal of the company‘s biannual election-coverage efforts which began with Commitment 2000 and which have earned a Peabody Award and multiple USC Annenberg Walter Cronkite Awards.

Other features of commitment 2012 include "12 in 12" ? a pledge of a minimum 12 minutes‘ airtime for daily political news and candidate-discourse coverage ? and an exclusive partnership with PolitiFact, the Pulitzer prize-winning fact-checking website of the Tampa Bay Times.

"This app should come in handy not only for voters in the 25 Hearst Television news markets, but for any political observer interested in the latest developments in closely contested presidential-election states like Florida, Iowa, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin ? and in states hosting tight Senate races, like Massachusetts ? in all of which states Hearst Television has leading news stations and websites," said Hearst Television senior VP Roger Keating.

MUMBAI: Fimalac, the French parent company of global ratings agency Fitch Group, has announced it will sell media company Hearst an additional 10 per cent interest in Fitch, bringing Hearst?s equity interest to 50 per cent.

The transaction is valued at $177 million. Hearst acquired its original interest in Fitch from Fimalac, a public company, in March 2006. The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of this year after receipt of all necessary regulatory approvals.

Hearst CEO Frank A Bennack Jr. said, "The acquisition of an additional 10 percent interest in Fitch demonstrates our confidence in the company and in its future growth. We look forward to becoming an equal partner with Fimalac in this important worldwide business."

Fitch Ratings is a global rating agency committed to providing the world?s credit markets with accurate, timely and prospective credit opinions. Fitch also includes Fitch Solutions, a distribution channel for Fitch Ratings products and a provider of data, analytics, and related services.