MUMBAI: Asianet News Network group’s digital news media reach now spans four southern languages and English with the acquisition of Newsfast, a leading Tamil digital news platform.
With regional being the growth driver for digital news, Newsfast, though a relative newbie in the space, has been a strong challenger to many of Tamil’s established legacy news brands. Claiming over a million unique visitors, that site is recognised for breaking news especially in the context of the recent volatility in Tamil Nadu’s politics.
A leader in Malayalam and Kannada with www.asianetnews.tv and www.suvarnanews.tv, Asianet News Digital also recently launched www.telugu.asianetnews.tv
Asianet News Digital chief operating officer Anoop N said “Asianet has been focusing on creating a compelling digital video news platform that addresses the underserved south through its respective local languages and technology innovations in video and content distribution."
Renowned TV journalist and Newsfast founder Mathivanan M said: “As a part of Asianet, we will now have access to a wider audience base and a stronger technology platform."
Through this acquisition, Asianet News network gets a headstart in the competitive Tamil digital news space. The network now has the ability to leverage the new Tamil news entity to further enhance the content stream in www.newsable.com, its English digital video platform. Newsable recently inducted senior journalist and Firstpost co-founder Lakshmi Chaudhry as an editorial advisor.
Chaudhry said: “Asianet's strong brand credibility and presence across the four southern states with strong regional teams and deep regional insights, provides us the edge to source and deliver content like none other.”
According to a recent industry report, Tamil (language) has the highest internet adoption amongst regional languages and the Tamil audience is also the most engaged on content with over one-third of them accessing news content online and most of them on mobile devices.
“For brands that work with us, this multi-platform reach across broadcast, print and digital offers a significant opportunity to influence the southern markets,” added Anoop.
“It allows us to craft digital-first solutions with deep regional relevance, supporting brands that want to look at vernacular markets as the next driver for brand expansion and growth. With the very mature Tamil market now in our scope, the opportunity to disrupt with superior content delivery is significant,” he concluded.
