Republic TV on Wednesday announced that it was set to launch its new TV channel, called R. Global, amidst the mysterious absence of its founder Arnab Goswami from TV for more than 50 days.
In a series of tweets, Republic TV wrote, “BIG ANNOUNCEMENTS! Republic Media Network is very proud to make a series of growth announcements in India and abroad on broadcast and digital. We are supremely grateful to the people of India whose love propels R. ! #TheGameHasJustBegun.”
Its subsequent tweet read, “We are proud to announce R. GLOBAL! India’s largest & most loved news brand R. is now going GLOBAL! We are rapidly expanding our international base with over 120 journalists from across the globe to deliver world-class content & investigations to our viewers #TheGameHasJustBegun.”
Republic TV said that Arnab was ‘personally committed to the expansion of Indian media in the global market’ adding that the media group’s new venture was ‘the first step in that direction.’
“From Wuhan to Tel-Aviv to Dominica: R. has led international coverage and unearthed the biggest stories with our global investigation teams on the ground. With R. GLOBAL, R. will take our international reporting base to the next level,” it said.
BIG ANNOUNCEMENTS! Republic Media Network is very proud to make a series of growth announcements in India and abroad on broadcast and digital. We are supremely grateful to the people of India whose love propels R. ! #TheGameHasJustBegun
— Republic (@republic) June 16, 2021
The media network owned by Arnab said that it will soon recruit over ‘100 digital professionals on the tech, product and content streams’ to stregthen its digital team.
The news of Republic TV’s expansion plans came amidst continuing suspense over Arnab’s absence from the public scene for nearly two months. The last time the controversial anchor was seen on his own TV channel was on 2 May when he appeared on TV for the counting of votes in five states including West Bengal. However, he had made a hasty exit immediately after it emerged that BJP was unable to wrest power from Mamata Banerjee in West Bengal.
Arnab had launched Republic Bangla ahead of the Bengal elections with much fanfare.
Many of Arnab’s supporters including Madhu Kishwar and filmmaker Ashoke Pandit had taken to social media to announce that Arnab was well and the anchor had merely taken a brief break from his TV commitments. Republic TV has not made any comments on the mystery surrounding the TV anchor’s absence.