HT Media Ltd is India's second largest print media company in terms of circulation of daily newspaper. Their flagship brand, Hindustan Times is one of the most well recognized media brands in India. The company is the subsidiary of the Hindustan Times Ltd.
The Company publishes Hindustan Times', an English daily, and Mint', a Business paper daily except on Sunday' and undertakes commercial printing jobs. The Company is also engaged into the business of providing entertainment, radio broadcast and all other related activities through its Radio Stations operating under brand name Fever 104', Fever' and Radio Nasha'. The digital business of the Company comprises of various online platforms such as shine.com', etc.
HT Media Ltd was incorporated on December 3, 2002 as a going concern basis. With effect from July 1, 2003, the media business comprising of the entire printing and publishing undertakings of HTL expect the Printing Business at New Delhi was transferred to the HT Media Ltd. Due to this transfer, Searchlight Publishing House Ltd became a subsidiary of HT Media Ltd. The printing undertaking of HTL at New Delhi was subsequently acquired by the company through a separate agreement on October 2, 2004.
In Feb 2007, HT Media entered into an equal partner joint venture with Bennett Coleman & Co Ltd for launching a daily tabloid named 'Metro Now' targeted towards the youth in the city of Delhi. In February 2007, the company entered the business news genre with the launch of the business newspaper 'Mint' in Delhi and Mumbai in association with The Wall Street journal. Along with the business paper, they also launched a website viz. Livemint.com which has potential of becoming a fully integrated finance portal offering news, stock quotes, alerts, share trading platforms etc.
HT Media also entered the Radio segment with the channel 'Fever 104' FM in association with Virgin Radio, UK. The FM radio channel was launched through one of the subsidiary companies in Delhi on November 2006, in Mumbai on January 2007 and in Bangalore on March 2007.
HT Media was awarded World Young reader prize in the Special Mention Category for the year 2006 and World Young reader prize in the Public Service Category Jury Commendation for the year 2007 by the World Association of Newspaper, France.
During the year 2007-08, the company acquired two commercial printing machines (Baker Perkins) and commissioned at Noida and Navi Mumbai. They incorporated Firefly e-Ventures Ltd (incorporated as Medialab Web Solutions Ltd) and Hindustan Media Ltd as subsidiaries of the company. In January 2008, the company launched FM radio channel, Fever 104 in Kolkata. In March 2008, Mint started circulation in Chandigarh and Pune.
In April 2008, the company's wholly owned subsidiary, Firefly c-Ventures Ltd launched a new job portal, namely, www.shine.com. In April 21, 2008, the company launched their Hindi daily newspaper, namely, 'Hindustan', at Chandigarh, Mohali and other parts of Punjab. In May 4, 2008, they launched their Hindi daily at Aligarh in Uttar Pradesh. In May 23, 2008, they commenced printing of their Hindi daily newspaper at Dehradun.
During the year 2008-09, the company commenced printing of Hindustan Times at Kanpur. They also undertook trial-runs for their state-of-the-art printing facility in Mumbai. The company entered into a joint venture agreement with German media group Burda Druck GmbH and incorporated HT Burda, for undertaking third party printing by Rotogravure technology and pre-press work.
The company acquired Radio business of HT Music and Entertainment Company Limited with effect from January 1, 2009 which is engaged into the business of providing entertainment, radio broadcast and all other related activities through its Radio Stations operating under the brand name 'Fever 104' in cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Bangalore.
During the year, the company's subsidiary HT Digital Media Holdings Ltd incorporated a subsidiary company namely, HT Mobile Solutions Ltd for undertaking mobile marketing solutions. HT Mobile is 65:35 joint venture between HT Digital and Velti PLC, a company incorporated in UK and a world-renowned leader in mobile marketing and mobile advertising technologies.
In May 25, 2009, the company launched 'Mint', the English Business newspaper in Kolkata and in July 13, 2009, they launched 'Mint' at Chennai. With this launch, 'Mint' has a national footprint. In October 10, 2009, the company commissioned the printing facilities at Bareilly and commenced printing of their Hindi newspaper 'Hindustan'.
The company sold their Hindi business comprising of Hindi daily newspaper, 'Hindustan' including 'Ravivasriya Hindustan'; magazines 'Nandan' and 'Kadambini'; and internet portals of the said publications on a slump sale to Hindustan Media Ventures Ltd, a subsidiary company with effect from December 1, 2009.
In the year 2010, the company Joint venture 50:50 with Benett Coleman & Co., was printing and publishing 'hyper-local' newspaper in Delhi & NCR. In recent years the company has added new businss like Radio, Online, Events and marketing solution.
In the year 2011, the company restructuring following the demerger of Hindustan Business undertaking into Hindustan Media Ventures Limited (HMVL). The company focus on high growth areas of classified as automobiles, FMCG, education and realestates.
In the year 2012, the company 50:50 joint venture with Indian Education Services Priviate Limited (IESPL), the company has, so far, invested Rs 1,500 Lacs in the equity capital of IESPL. HT Media has grow into a diversified media company and plans to consolidated grow on the back of a well balanced portfolio.
Hindustan Times launched the You Read, They Learn' initiative in April 2012. Studymate launched a 24-hour board examination helpline called Hum Hain Na' during the time of CBSE Board examination, through which more than 45 schools & 5,000 students benefitted. HT Brunch has also launched a signature event called Brunch Dialogues. In the educational field, it expanded Studymate into the competitive exams coaching space. For the academic year 2013-14, it launched 2-year and 1-year CBSE+JEE programmes for Classes XI and XII respectively.
The expansion of the printing capacity at Greater Noida was completed during the year 2013-14. The Company in 2014, launched Page One Plus', an industry-first concept giving readers a quick snapshot of all the relevant news in a single tear-away sheet. Micro editions were launched in Gurgaon and Noida to provide local residents with area specific news & issues and a platform for local advertisements. Unclog Mumbai' , an ongoing ambitious project was launched to identify traffic chokepoints and suggest ways to ease commuting in the city. The weekly feature School Notes' was launched as a forum for youngsters to contribute their viewpoints. Among the new developments for the year were the new CTP installations at Greater Noida, and Allahabad, Bareilly & Dhanbad (through subsidiaries), resulting in smoother and more reliable operations at the centers. The Company's Hindi business launched a major innovation in news gathering called News Live'.
Mission Tezaab' was launched in 2015. The Company introduced specialised products like HT Luxe & HT Premium Homes for real estate, 48Hours & Brunch Gold for lifestyle, Hindustan Jobs & Hindustan Lives for city entertainment. HT Digital Streams Limited was incorporated on November 2, 2015, as a wholly owned subsidiary of the Company.
The Company launched second radio station, Radio Nasha in Delhi & Mumbai in 2016. In 2016, the Multi-Media Content Management Undertaking of the Company got demerged/ transferred into HT Digital Streams Limited, as a wholly-owned subsidiary, as a going concern' on a slump exchange basis by way of issue of fully paid-up equity shares of HT Digital Streams Limited to the Company.
The Company strengthened its radio operations by launching FM Radio stations in seven cities in Uttar Pradesh and Hyderabad in addition to second frequency in Delhi and Mumbai in 2016-17. Mint retained its No. 2 position among India's business dailies as new version, which got launched in September, 2016. The Bridge School of Management, has launched a programme in General Management (Post Graduate Programme in Management-Business Immersion). In February 2017, it launched two programmes in Digital Marketing and two programmes in Supply Chain Management.
In 2017-18, the Company incorporated a wholly owned subsidiary company namely, HT Digital Ventures Limited'. The name of this Company was changed to Digicontent Limited' (DCL') w.e.f. October 24, 2017. The Company acquired 'Desimartini.com' business from Topmovies Entertainment Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary company during FY-18, as a going concern' on slump-sale basis.
In 2018, through the Scheme of Arrangement between the Company and Digicontent Limited, wholly owned subsidiary company, the Entertainment & Digital Innovation Business' of the Company was demerged / transferred into Digicontent Limited, on a going concern basis effective March 31, 2018. Accordingly, in terms of the Scheme, the eligible shareholders of the Company were allotted equity shares of Digicontent Limited in the ratio of 4:1. Upon effectiveness of the Scheme and allotment of Equity Shares, Digicontent Limited and its subsidiary HT Digital Streams Limited were ceased to be subsidiaries of the Company w.e.f April 5, 2019. The radio arm of the Company acquired 51% stake in Radio One, becoming the third radio station in 2019.