Botsa burn his hands with Zee 24 Gantalu

HYDERABAD: Not long ago, owning a television channel was seen as the surest way for politicians to promote themselves and improve their standing in the corridors of power. However, the dwindling revenues, sharp decline in viewership and growing operational costs have made it a losing proposition. And, the ambitious politicians are now feeling the pinch as the hard realities of the news channel market have hit them.

The fiasco surrounding the closure of 'Zee 24 Gantalu', a popular Telugu news channel, illustrates the trend. Pradesh Congress Committee president Botsa Satyanarayana has learnt the harsh realities of the television market after burning his fingers in the venture.

It is said that Botsa incurred a loss of more than `5 crore in the last one year. The Zee Television Network, which had given the channel on lease to an agency owned by Botsa family more than a year ago, terminated the agreement a couple of days ago.

The Zee group paid three months' salary to its employees and took them off its payrolls, before winding up the channel. For the last two days, the channel has not been telecasting any news bulletins, though it is technically still on air, telecasting stock programmes.

According to sources, Botsa had entered into agreement with the Zee group last year when the latter was planning to close down the Zee 24 Gantalu channel which was running in losses.

According to the agreement, Botsa would achieve breakeven of the channel within 18 months from the date of lease and after that, he would get 45 per cent stake in the channel. Till then, he would bear whatever losses the channel would incur after accruing advertisement revenues to the Zee group accounts.

'The agreement period is coming to a close, but there are no signs of any breakeven for the channel, though Botsa has been incurring a loss of `40 lakh per month,' sources said.

Though Botsa thought the channel would fetch him a lot of political mileage, nothing was forthcoming though it extensively covered all his programmes, including his daughter's lavish wedding.

'Instead, the channel got a bad name because it rubbed Botsa's rivals and officials on the wrong side and the Zee group management received complaints against the unscrupulous ways of journalism followed by the channel in the last one year. This led to termination of agreement,' sources said.

In the last few years, Andhra Pradesh witnessed mushrooming of several such television news channels by politicians and big business houses ' at present there are more than 20 television channels in Telugu ' despite the fact that it is a highly cost intensive and the gestation period for achieving the breakeven is too long.

While politicians have chosen to launch their own media houses, as they feel there is no better way to get publicity and campaign for themselves in the run-up to 2014 elections, business houses found it a way to promote their own business ventures.

YSR Congress party president Y S Jaganmohan Reddy set the trend for such politicians by launching Sakshi television channel in 2008. Though Telugu Desam Party president N Chandrababu Naidu does not have a channel of his own, there are channels like ETV2, ABN Andhra Jyothy and Maha TV which are directly blowing the trumpet for him. Another not-so-popular channel Studio N was run by Naidu's son Lokesh for some time, but now it has been airing anti-Naidu stories.

Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy, too, entered media business, albeit indirectly, by obtaining stakes in two television channels: 'I-News' and 'A-TV' and they have now been extensively airing the programmes highlighting the achievements of his government.

Similarly, the CPI (M) is indirectly controlling '10TV' news channel, while the CPI, too, is making preparations to launch its own television channel ' 'TV99.' Telangana Congress MP G Vivekananda runs another Telugu news channel ' V6, while Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) has its own channel 'T-News.' The BJP is also said to be having stakes in 'Raj News.'

Business houses like Image Hospital and Agri Gold also launched their own television channels, ostensibly to promote their business ventures.

'Industrialists and businessmen are forced to go in for the launch of television channels as they are not getting enough protection from the bureaucracy and politicians. Instead, they are the most harassed lot. No wonder, they are entering the media business to protect themselves,' an industrialist observed.