New Delhi Television Limited on Friday filed an application with the ministry of information and broadcasting, seeking approval for a 24-hour business news channel.

Though company executives declined to elaborate, sources said the new channel, which may be named NDTV Business, should be on air by the end of 2004, provided the government approved the application within a month.

"Since we launched the 9 am-4 pm business news on NDTV 24x7 two months ago, we have received a tremendous response. And during the last two weeks, according to industry reports, we have done better than CNBC," Sameer Manchanda, director, NDTV, told Business Standard.

The new channel will be predominantly in English, but there also will be space for Hindi viewers.

Saying that there was enough space for more than one business news channel, Manchanda said, "It is a very lucrative market for us and there is lot of untapped potential for the upcoming channel. It will operate simultaneously from Delhi and Mumbai but as Mumbai is the commercial capital of the country, we expect to focus more on that city while all major metros and towns will be reached through various interactive programmes."

Talking about the distribution of the new channel, Manchanda said, "Presently we are holding talks with Sony and it will take a little more time to finalise the distribution system for the new channel."

He, however, denied to give a timeframe for the launch, saying, "We will try to bring it on at the earliest but there are certain government processes to be completed."

Sai Kumar, vice president of CNBC TV 18, said: "CNBC has core competence in handling business news and we are not at all feeling threatened with NDTV's plan as there is enough room for more players."

He added: "We are considering our own Hindi business channel as a stronger rival for the English business news channel. The Hindi business channel will be on air this December."

According to Kumar, CNBC TV 18 will floor its Hindi business channel's programmes from three state-of-the-art studios in Mumbai, spread over 40,000 square feet of area.