Thursday, January 15, 2009

Sakshi and Mahaa get license

Sakshi and Mahaa TV got licenses and this is shown in the website of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. They must have got the signed letters a couple of days ago since the Sakshi management has started sending out its logos very recently  and the Heads at Mahaa distributed sweets. The final hurdle has been crossed ant now it is for the leaders of these channels to go ahead and air their channels. Now the three channels due for February launch are  Studio N, Saakshi and Mahaa. But the recruitment in Mahaa is still incomplete and it may take another fortnight. Mr. CR Naidu, Chairman , Mahaa TV ( an ex official of the Police Department)  is confident enough that his channel will be on air in February itself at any cost.
 
The fate of Zee 24 Gantalu and Asianet Telugu news is still in geopardy as they are yet to get license. Though both the channels are claiming to have completed dry runs and are ready for launch once the license issue is solved, the staff say that it is difficult to go on air in February. The two channels - iNews and hmtv , test launched on 1st Jan are trying to remove the words " Test Signal " in the last week of this month.

Sunday, January 11, 2009

Anjaiah & Co in Studio N

Mr. Anjaiah from CTV has taken over the reins of Studio N, the channel planned to be launched in february with the main intention of supporting the TDP supremo N. Chandrababu Naidu. There is nothing unusual about it since the chief promoter Mr. narne Srinivasa Rao is a close relative of Babu. Though Mr. Siva ram Prasad has been working hard to bring out the channel, around 80 staff members inducted by him were not given any appointment letters and were indirectly being asked to go away. To protect his team, Mr. OPrasad is said to be bearing all the insults he is being subjected to. The sad part of it is that 3 senior people who resigned their jobs and joined Studio N were asked to go away just because they are the nominees of Mr. Prasad. Now, nobody is showing interest to join the channel, atleast on the invitation of its managing Director Mr. Sivaram Prasad.
Anjaiah, who was with CTV for about 5 years has taken full control of the channel and some of his close friends like Mr. Jayaprasad, Mr. Danny, Mr. Saber Ali are also joining the channel soon. This team's only agenda is to run the channel as a complete TDP channel. Knowing fully well that all these people are pro-TDP, everyone is sure that the promoter's interests are fully taken care of by them. Needless to say that Mr. Sivaram prasad has been sidelined and may be asked to take care of the English Channel, which will never see the light of the day.

Strategic settlement in NTV

Mr. Murthy, Mr. Ramakrishna and Mr. Ramachandra Rao have suddenly changed their strategy and decided to stay back in NTV and brought in Mr. Sastry. When there are two options whether to work under Mr. Satish Babu or go out, they found the other option of bringing in Mr. Sastry and made the management agree to their proposal. It is a great disappointment to the COO who proposed the name of Mr. Satish Babu. But, however, Mr. Satish Babu never tried for NTV since he is very much comfortable with Asianet and hence he is not disappointed.
 
In Sakshi too things have started settling down coolly. Mr. Bhaskar Nemani is consolidating his position knowing clearly that he is an upstart. Mr. ram Reddy will be heading the channel while Ms. Geetha will confine herself to the creative part of the programming. But the main question continues to haunt the staff and the management. Who is responsible for the Rs. 10 crore fraud in the procurement of equipment ?