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Aaj News

Aaj News is part of one of the country’s earliest and most influential media groups called Business Recorder Group, which was established in 1965 by M. A. Zuberi starting off with the Business Recorder daily newspaper that focused on financial journalism. After TV and radio broadcasting were open for the private sector in 2002, the group launched Aaj TV in 2005. It was initially a generic channel with a mix of news and entertainment. In March 2009 it was converted into a 24-hour news and current affairs channel. The group branched off the entertainment part of its media business into a channel called Play TV which was re-christened in 2014 as Play Max and in 2015 again renamed as Aaj Entertainment.

Being part of the Business Recorder Group, which has been widely recognized as focusing on professional journalism, Aaj News manages to remain part of a small club of TV channels that make a conscious effort to practice sober journalism restrain themselves from the pull of sensationalism that the broader group of dozens of news and current affairs TV channels resort to in order to hold on the ratings game.

Key facts

Audience Share

7.00%

Ownership Type

Private

Geographic Coverage

International

Content Type

Free to air

Data Publicly Available

ownership data is easily available from other sources, e. g. public registries etc.

2 ♥

Media Companies / Groups

Business Recorder Group

Ownership

Ownership Structure

Aaj TV is operated by the Recorder Television Network (Pvt) Ltd. The majority of its shares, 85.32%, are held by two companies: Emmay Zed Publications (Pvt) Ltd (55.02%) and Apex Printry (Pvt) Ltd (30.30%). The remaining 14.68% are held by the Zuberi family members: Wamiq A. Zuberi and Azif A. Zuberi – 4.89% each, Arshad A. Zuberi–3,67% and Ahmad A. Zuberi – 1.22%.
Apex Printry (Private) Limited is also owned by the Zuberi family members where Wamiq and Asif Aziz Zuberi own 33.33% each, Arshad A. Zuberi has 25% and Ahmad A. Zuberi has 8.33% shares.
Similarly, with the exact same ratio, Emmay Zed Publications Private Limited is controlled by the Zuberi Family: Wamiq A. Zuberi (33.33%), Asif A. Zuberi (33.33%), Arshad A. Zuberi (25%) and Ahmad Aziz Zuberi (8.33%).
Finally, the Zuberi family controls 100% of the Recorder Television Network (Private) Limited directly and indirectly through Apex Printy (Private) Limited and Emmay Zed Publications (Private) Limited. Wamiq and Asif A Zuberi have 33.32% shares each (directly 4.89%, through Apex Printry 18.34%, through Emmay Zed Publications 10.09%), Arshad A Zuberi has 25.03% (directly 3.67%, through Apex Printry 13.76%, through Emmay Zed Publications 7.60%), and Ahmad A Zuberi has 8.32% (directly 1.22%, through Apex Printry 4.58%, through Emmay Zed Publications 2.52%).

Voting Rights

Each member is accorded one vote and a simple majority of votes carries a decision. In case of a dispute, the chairman’s ruling will be decisive.

Individual Owner

Media Companies / Groups
Facts

General Information

Founding Year

2005

Affiliated Interests Founder

M A Zuberi

founded the Business Recorder Group and was also the founder and editor-in-chief of daily Business Recorder. He was patron-in-chief of Aaj TV. His claim to fame part from his media business achievements is that he was reportedly appointed as an apprentice sub-editor and reporter at Dawn newspaper in New Delhi in 1945, two years before Pakistan came into being, by Mohammad Ali Jinnah, who founded both Pakistan and Dawn newspaper. By the time Pakistan came into being on August 14, 1947, M A Zuberi had risen through the ranks at Dawn to become senior assistant editor, a post he held for several years. In 1951 he was appointed editor of Evening Star, a sister daily publication that the management of Pakistan Herald Ltd, which owns Dawn, had launched.
In 1965, Zuberi parted ways and launched his own Business Recorder daily and in the process became both the pioneer of business journalism in Pakistan as well as laying the foundation of a media group that continues to grow. Zuberi to his credit also became the founding member and president of Council of Pakistan Newspaper Editors (CPNE). In recognition of his services for journalism he was in 2003 awarded the Sitara-i-Imtiaz, a national award for professional distinction. He passedaway in 2010 at the age of 90.

Affiliated Interests Ceo

Mr. Shahab Zuberi

has broadcast, business and management backgrounds. Son of Mr M A Zuberi, the founder of Business Recorder Group, Shahab was in 2003 appointed group chief operating officer of the Business Recorder Group, including Aaj TV and Business Recorder daily. He has also served as the president of the Digital Publishers Association of Pakistan (DPAP) which groups together major print and electronic media in Pakistan. In the past he has worked as regional director of NTM, the country’s first private TV, as CEO of Weekend World, a marketing company of state-owned PTV World and regional direction of Interflow, one of Pakistan’s largest advertising agencies. He also has experience working as content producer for international broadcasters including BBC, Voice of America (VOA) and Deutsche Welle (DW).

Affiliated Interests Editor-In-Chief

Missing Data

Affiliated Interests other important people

Mr Ahmad A Zuberi

Deputy Chief Executive of Aaj TV is the grandson of M A Zuberi, is deputy chief executive of Aaj TV, board member of the Pakistan Broadcasters Association (PBA), a grouping of electronic media owners and board member of Pakistan Centre for Philanthropy and manages Apex Printry, which advertises itself as the only non-government printing facility in Pakistan with the capability and authority to print secure financial and legal papers, and also manages ‘e-dynamics,’ a hi-tech information solutions provider.

Contact

Aaj TV, 531 Business Recorder Road, PK-74550, Karachi

Tel.: (92-21) 111-010-010

Fax: (92-21) 32237067

Email: aaj@aaj.tv

Website: www.aaj.tv

Financial Information

Revenue (in Mill. $)

USD 11 Million / PKR 1.218 Billion (2017-18)

Operating Profit (in Mill. $)

USD 5.49 Million / PKR 604.28 Million (2017-18)

Advertising (in % of total funding)

Missing Data

Market Share

Missing Data

Further Information

Meta Data

The company was sent information request on 15.01.2019 through a courier company as well as by email. The company did respond even after a reminder was couriered on01.02.2019 and emailed on 04.02.2019 but the information was not forthcoming. The company does not have online presence. Financial information has been obtained from a report for 2017-18 submitted by the company to the SECP. The amounts were converted based on the rate for June 2018 at PKR 119 per USD.

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