Sahara Samay, a Hindi News Channel, was launched in 2003, a part of the group of six free-to-air 24-hours news channels belonging to Sahara India Pariwar. People`s Voice being the key highlights of this channel, it employs more than thousand journalists. The focus of this channel is to reach the target audience of both metro and smaller cities and the stories from rural areas are still few and far between them.
Sahara India Parivar has been founded by Subrata Roy with its headquarters in Lucknow district. The company made its foray into the field of electronic media with Sahara Samay Network. This was a news network that offered five regional news channels. Besides the regional news channels for the states of Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Delhi and Maharashtra, the network also comprises Sahara Samay. This is a 24 hour national news channel that is available in more that 66 countries. Besides Lucknow, Sahara Media and Entertainment Network have its offices in Mumbai and New Delhi. Chandrasen Verma is the Editor-in-Chief for Sahara Samay.
Sahara Samay is different in the cluster of Hindi news channels available in the nation. It has a dynamic circular logo, which does not carry the channel`s name as the other channels have logos incorporating their names. The Sahara Samay logo includes colours of the Indian flag and people on the periphery holding hands. The logo of this channel is located at the right hand corner of the screen. It actually moves in a clockwise direction. All the presenters of Sahara Samay wear the Sahara Samay Logo unlike any other channel presenters which symbolises their unquestioned loyalty for the company as well as their quality of fellow feeling.
Sahara Samay presents an array of news to its viewers ranging from entertainment, to politics, health, current affairs, business and others. Apart from airing the headlines, there are regular news bulletins that keep a track on these headlines and present updated news as well. Other shows at Sahara Samay include The RKB Show, Khel Samay, Charge Sheet, Abhiyan, Daav Pench, Aap ki Aawaz, Teh Tak, Silly Point, Cinema Samay, Manchahi, and others.
Anchored by Rakesh Bajaj, The RKB Show is one of the most watched shows on Sahara Samay. It is a one to one talk show where celebrities are interviewed. Punctuated the Rakesh Bajaj`s inimitable sense of humour, this show is an interesting watch. This news channel also airs shows pertaining to entertainment, sports, current issues and crime shows. World and regional news are also part of its programme list. Some of the other anchors of Sahara Samay are Vinod Dua, Shireen, Sudhir Choudhary and Arup Ghosh. Kavindra Sachan, who presents Silly Point, is the recipient of Best Anchor Award in the Sports section in the Second Media Excellence Awards. The reporters of this channel use proper Hindi language without distortion with minimal usage o English language. In this channel the foreign exchange rates are also shown.
In the year 2008, Sahara Samay won the `Broadcast Engineering Excellence Award` for its network newsroom technology, leaving CNN in the runners up category. Sahara newsroom is a fine example of convergence wherein IT converges with Graphics, Audio-Video, editing and broadcasting. Sahara Samay is now being broadcasted in the US also. In fact, Sahara Samay National has gained significant viewer ship with both Aaj Tak and Zee News fighting hard to retain their strong hold.
Sahara Samay till date remains one of the most renowned Hindi News Channels in India.