In an interview with Indiantelevision.com’s Sibabrata Das, the ZNL CEO also talks about the growth of regional news markets and the challenges that they face in each language space.
Q. Sources say ZNL is planning to launch an English-language general news channel towards the exit quarter of the fiscal. Are you waiting for digitisation to come into force in the four metros before you join the ring?
We have been planning to launch an English general news channel for some time. The approval process is not yet formalised. Any launch plan will, however, be linked to digitisation as distribution cost will ease to a large extent with there being no capacity constraint on digital cable networks.
Q. Akash Bangla, the Bengali infotainment channel where ZNL holds 18 per cent stake, is loss-making and you had to provide for Rs 166.7 million. Will ZNL exit from the JV as it runs a successful channel, 24 Ghanta, in that market?
Akash Bangla channel and our joint venture for 24 Ghanta are two different arrangements. We made strategic investment in Akash Bangla channel in 2009 and given the current circumstances, we decided to provide for that funding. 24 Ghanta is a strong No. 1 Bengali news channel with strong financial performance as well.
Bengal, after all, is a news hungry market. The advertising size for TV news is around Rs 1.20 billion, and growing.
Q. Won’t the Andhra market be the toughest for ZNL to crack as it is flooded with news channels?
While it is the largest TV news market in terms of ad revenue, it is a weird market too. There are many politically motivated channels in that market and are, therefore, not run as typical business outfits. Thus, it is a difficult market, but we do have specific plans for that too.
The advertising size is pegged at Rs 1.40 billion, and growing. Zee 24 Ghantalu has not yet steadied in that market but we hope that our positioning as a non politically aligned channel should work .
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