One is Aaj Tak. The other is Dilli Aaj Tak. The first is a Hindi national news channel (which means it tells you that the price of tomatoes in the country has gone up from Rs blah to Rs blah); the second is a Hindi news channel exclusively for the capital (which means it tells you that the price of tomatoes at the local government price controlled shop is Rs 29.50 on Saturday morning).

Aaj Tak, the national news channel, will headline the news of a bomb in a Nagpur school (Friday lunch time); Dilli Aaj Tak will headline the alleged suicide by a student (in Delhi, not at the Nagpur school); Aaj Tak will trumpet the release of Hrithik Roshan’s latest film Krissh nationwide (which includes halls in Delhi, like PVR); Dilli Aaj Tak will bugle the release of Hrithik Roshan’s latest film Krissh at halls in Delhi (which include PVR).

Subsequently, both will preview the film at great length with public reactions (from Delhi) to the Roshans’ flight of fancy.

You see how the two channels walk the fine line between ‘national’ and ‘local’ and how, by a happy coincidence, so much of what happens in Delhi is considered both local and national. With sports and films being of equal interest to viewers of national and local news channels, there are moments the two can pass off for each other. This is not just a happy coincidence but a contrived branding which allows the sister channels to cross-promote one another.

... contd.