Republic Media Network

Arnab Goswami resigned as editor-in-chief of Times Now on 1 November 2016, citing editorial differences, lack of freedom and newsroom politics.[2][3] He hosted the last edition of his show,[4] The Newshour Debate, a fortnight later.[5][6] Incidentally, the show had been subject to an investigation by Ofcom, the UK broadcasting regulatory authority, in August and September; the investigation had held Times Now guilty of violating the impartiality clause of its broadcast code.[7]

On 16 December, Goswami announced his next venture — a news channel called Republic;[8] the name was later changed to Republic TV in the face of complaints by Subramanian Swamy.[9] Republic TV was hyped as India's first independent media outlet which would 'democratize' news and compete with global media giants whilst being unabashedly pro-India.

Republic TV was funded in part by Asianet (ARG Outlier Asianet News Private Limited), which was primarily owned by Rajeev Chandrasekhar, a then-independent member of Rajya Sabha who had political links with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and was vice-chairman of the National Democratic Alliance in Kerala.[10] Among other major investors were Goswami himself, his wife Samyabrata Goswami, educationists Ramdas Pai and Ramakanta Panda — all of whom invested through SARG Media Holding Private Ltd.[11]

Chandrasekhar resigned from the board, after he officially joined the BJP in April 2018;[12] Goswami purchased back Asianet's shares in May 2019.[13][14]

The Wire and Newslaundry had come across an internal memo floated by Chandrasekhar's group that asked for selective recruitment of right-of-center pro-military voices, who were conducive to his ideology.[15]

S. Sundaram, who had served as the CFO for Times Now between 2005 and 2012, was named the Group CFO. Chief Business Officer of Reliance Broadcast Network Vikas Khanchandani, who had earlier stints as Senior Vice President of NDTV, was made the CEO[16] and co-founder of The News Minute, Chitra Subramaniam was roped in as the editorial adviser.[17] Others who joined included senior anchor of Thanthi TV S. A. Hariharan, retired army officer and television personality Gaurav Arya,[18] former chief correspondent from Jammu and Kashmir for Times Now Aditya Raj Kaul, writer and founder-editor of Gentleman, Minhaz Merchant[19] and actor Anupam Kher.[20]

Republic TV was launched on 6 May 2017 as Flagship channel, through most direct-to-home television in India and cable television operators, alongside over mobile platforms such as JioTV and Hotstar.[21] Reporting on its launch, Business Standard wrote "The company has already hired 300 people, of whom 215 are on board. A state-of-the-art-studio is being built in Mumbai's Lower Parel area."[22]

On 2 February 2019, the channel launched its Hindi language outlet named Republic Bharat.[23]

Republic TV launched a Bengali language news channel, Republic Bangla, on 7 March 2021.[24]

Republic TV officially bought Dighvijaya News channel from VRL Media and rebranded to Republic Kannada.[25][26]