YSR Congress Rajya Sabha MP Vijayasai Reddy announced starting a News Channel very soon to counter Pro-TDP Channels.
“Last time when I wanted to start a News Channel, Jagan did stop me. This time I am not going to stop,” Sai Reddy announced.
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There are rumors that Sai Reddy is in talks with now defunct Raj TV for a possible takeover.
Raj TV was initially founded by Chennai-based people but quickly ran into debts. The Channel changed many hands since then.
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BRS initially took it over and ran for some days until the got the license for T-News.
A Reddy leader in BJP ran it for some time and it was also controlled by Ravi Prakash (former TV9 CEO). Even they exited from it, long ago.
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Later, a former top employee of TV5 took it over but struggled once again. The Channel is out of the radar for a long time and most employees left it over pending dues running into several months.
Buzz is that the channel is with a big businessman who owns a convention center in Gachbowli.
Sources say that there are many issues for Sai Reddy to enter into Media Business.
Due to the pending FEMA violation cases on him, it is not possible for him to get a new Channel license or have an existing license transferred to his name.
So he has to have some one reliable to have the Channel on their name.
To run a channel decently, it is said to be costing 2.5 Crore per month. That means he has to spend around 30 Crore per year with zero returns initially.
The Zero Returns are guaranteed due to the fact there is no favorable government in AP, Telangana, or Delhi.
And then, he has to spend another 15 Crore per year to ensure the channel is broadcast on all major DTH networks.
That means there should be a bare-minimum funding of 45 Crore per annum.
He should have a minimum of 225 Crore for the next five years.
Media circles say that it is not easy to get Journalists and Reporters to this channel. Due to political polarization in the media space, Reporters are facing lot of problems when they have to attend Pressmeets.
The Reporters of Sai Reddy’s channel will have to face that from the establishment and also from the fellow reporters due to the way Sai Reddy messed with some channels. Also, the track record of all the owners of new channels in paying salaries is dismal.
If it is Raj TV takeover, the past experiences are even worse.
So, Sai Reddy has to pay double salaries to get experienced journalists which is again a task. Considering all this, it is going to be a very difficult task for the MP in days to come.
