NDTV has decided to transfer its business programming from NDTV Profit to the regular business and finance segments on NDTV 24x7, the company informed BSE. As a results of this the trading hours programming on NDTV Profit will stand suspended, while NDTV Prime will continue as an independent channel. Note that at present Profit operates as a dual channel with Prime, which is the infotainment channel. The company said that it might revive the business channel in the future, but nothing concrete was mentioned in this regard. Livemint reported that these changes will come into effect on June 5, though NDTV didn't provide a date in its release to BSE. This move isn't completely surprising. The company had cut spending by 17% to Rs 137 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2017 (Q4 FY17), compared to Rs 164 crore in Q4 FY16. Only the Hindi channel, which posted Rs 7 crore in profit in Q4 FY17, was performing well. Incidentally, the profits of the Hindi channel exceeded the total profits of the NDTV group at Rs 5 crore. At the end of Q3 FY17, NDTV had blamed the "downturn in TV advertisement revenues in the current quarter post currency demonetization" for the widening of losses. It had reported a net loss of Rs 15.83 crore for the quarter. Besides NDTV Profit and Prime, the group also operates the news channels NDTV India and NDTV 24x7, the lifestyle channel NDTV Good Times and several e-commerce ventures in verticals such as automobile…
