We are living in the era of extensions. The familiar family health soap, also known as Lifebuoy has ventured into shampoo business. Coke is making coffee, Dove is making shampoo, Starbucks is publishing magazine, beauty pageant winners are starring in blockbusters. With such extensions increasing in extended speed, what would be more obvious than a TV channel extending into newspaper or a newspaper extending into TV channel business?  

We are experiencing a global media boom unlike ever seen. Wall Street Journal is taking a slice of Indian Pie with their new “Mint” journal. Wall Street itself is being purchased by global media tycoon Rupert Murdoch and News Corp. In Bangladesh within a few years we have gone from 2 channel and 4-5 newspaper dominated landscape into a 10+ channel and more than 20 newspaper universe. In such an era of media fragmentation, wouldnt it be great if the trustworthiness of TV can be translated into paper business?

If Wall Street Journal is the number 1 selling business publication, wouldnt it stand a greater chance into extending its business by opening a 24 hour business channel? If ATN news is the must-see news of the day, wouldnt it benefit by venturing into a business publication called ATN news?

This would solve 3 problems.

1. This will result in consolidated media landscape, which will give greater control to brand managers in terms of where to spend their media budget

2. This will make customers life easier in terms of choosing what to watch and what to read

3. This will enable media houses to increase their business in an organic way, rather than solely depending on line extensions ( Like nTV brought another channel RTV).

If so, can we look forward to a Prothom Alo TV channel?