Now channel will launch "in the first half of the year", says Luís Santana, who explains the reason for the name of the new information channel, which will be in the ninth position on the Meo, NOS and Vodafone Portugal platforms.

"It's 'News' because it's news and 'Now' because the channel's 'claim' is the exact news at the right time", he says.

It is a "pure and hard information channel", it will cover national and international news and, in the latter, it will have a "very specific focus on Europe, on what are the national interests", says the CEO of Medialivre.

Now will be a 24-hour channel, seven days a week, with "very fast-paced newscasts, 15 minutes long, of what is essential information", he says.

Luís Santana does not reveal the investment made in the new channel, but says that it is "higher than the one made in CMTV".

As for synergies, these will never be with CMTV, nor with Correio da Manhã.

"The synergies will be made by the Jornal de Negócios team, the Sábado team, the Máxima team -- because here there is a subject we want to use, which is 'lifestyle', and also the Record team, but not in the format that CMTV uses", says Luís Santana.

News Now will also feature the participation of prominent figures in Portuguese society.

"They are not commentators, they are protagonists, which means that these personalities will be at the centre of the action", explains the CEO of Medialivre.

"A commentator talks about many things", here the focus is "on the person's knowledge, their experience, how the person sees reality, it is very focused on what the personality itself is", he summarizes.

The personalities include former Prime Minister António Costa, former PSD leader Rui Rio, MP and former Finance Minister Fernando Medina, PSD parliamentary leader Hugo Soares, Cardinal D. Américo Aguiar, former Director-General of Health Graça Freitas, Mayor of Figueira da Foz Pedro Santana Lopes, and the President of the Portuguese Bar Association, Fernanda de Almeida Pinheiro.

The new channel will bring a "differentiating factor" to the market, believes Luís Santana, also because those who start "have to be different" and be able to identify consumers who do not identify with the information solutions available so far.

"CMTV is one thing, News Now will be another, but there is one thing that is common and that made Correio da Manhã successful: it is the way it was able to differentiate itself from everything that existed in terms of information", also because "whoever does not differentiate nowadays, with the levels of competitiveness that exist, finds it very difficult to fill a space and gain market share", he stresses.

Now will have a website and will be on social media, hiring has already started and a total of 60 people are expected, of whom 26 are journalists and the rest are more involved in the technical side.

About when the idea came about, Luís Santana says it was right after the purchase of Cofina Media, last November.

"In five months the idea came about, the plan was developed and within the plan all the stages we had defined were materialized", from negotiating with the operators, securing the ninth position, inviting personalities, defining Now's strategy.

Regarding advertisers' interest in this new project, Luís Santana highlights the "great experience" on CMTV in terms of advertising investments.

"It has a lot to do with the channel, but also with the capital of trust that Cofina Media, now Medialivre, has achieved with the main 'stakeholders' in that industry. I believe that we will not lose this capital and we will also achieve with this channel", which has a "completely different profile from CMTV", "progressively achieve a very significant audience and that advertising will believe that this is also a place to make good communication investments", he concludes.

In mid-April, the Regulatory Authority for Social Communication (ERC) gave the 'green light' to the new information channel News Now.

Medialivre succeeded Cofina Media after Cofina's shareholders approved the sale of the latter to the company's managers (MBO - Management Buy Out). This MBO includes Cofina Media's management team, company executives and a group of investors, including Luís Santana, Ana Dias, Octávio Ribeiro, Isabel Rodrigues, Carlos Rodrigues, Luís Ferreira, Carlos Cruz, Cristiano Ronaldo, Domingos Vieira de Matos, Paulo Fernandes and João Borges de Oliveira, through the special purpose vehicle Expressão Livre SGPS.

Read Also: Information channel NewsNow is presented on Friday (Portuguese version)