TELANGANA VI: Why Telugu News Channels bar coverage?

The apathy shown by Telugu News channels in covering Telangana movement has a good reason. Initially they covered the movement from Nov 29 to Dec 9 in their typical 24x7 running commentary style with the sole purpose of increasing their TRPs, which in turn would translate into higher advertising revenues. The TRPs did increase with the marathon coverage but the Chidambaram's Dec 9 statement was an unexpected thunderbolt for them.

Discussion about separate state of Telangana, till then for the channel managements was purely 'entertainment' and something not to be taken seriously, just as it was for politicians. Telangana was a TRP money spinner for channels just the way it was a vote bank gimmick for parties. But once the Dec 9 statement came, reality of what a new state would mean dawned onto the channels. It meant a strong beating to the interests of the businessmen who own these channels. Almost all the Telugu news channels have been started by groups with strong interests in Real estate and finance companies. All these channels are profitable due to the advertising revenues they garner from thriving finance, real estate and the commercial technical education businesses in the state.

The Dec 9 declaration made all these groups, the channels and their advertising clients, go in a huddle and decide to go easy on the subsequent coverage of Telangana movement as many of these sectors stand to lose if the rules of the game in their sectors are altered in the new state. Hyderabad which falls in Telangana is their biggest market and for obvious reasons they view the new state unfavorably. So they have put an informal boycott of covering anything that would sustain or generate sympathy for the cause of Telangana even as real estate groups, bureaucrats initiated lobbying against the new state, which eventually succeeded. This explains why the police atrocities in OU are either unreported or misreported. This also explains why the many massive meetings which attracted lakhs of Telanganites went uncovered properly even while one of them was attended by the leader of the opposition inLok Sabha. This also explains why the daily suicides in Telangana are unreported and why the channels are uncritical about, if not endorsing, the state government's anti-constitutional and anti-democratic functioning.

According to a study done by Padmaja Shaw, an Associate Professor at OU about the news market in Andhra Pradesh, the following are the details about the sources of finance for prominent Telugu News Channel.

It has been clear from quite some time that Media, both print and electronic, is no more an instrument of journalistic practice but of political leverage. For instance, a TV channel bestows upon its owners a lobbying power with the powers-that-be to influence public policy, especially in sectors of their interest. The TV channel in turn shapes public opinion in favour of the powers-that-be. So no wonder all the channels that fit into the above category want us to believe what the Andhra Govt says. And with a literacy of 60.3% (ranking 26 among the 28 states and 7 union territories of India) and a TV reach of 78% and a high penetration of Cable & Satellite of 59% (One of the highest in country; Source: NRS 2006) the state of Swarnandhra Pradesh is fertile ground for Joseph Goebbels style propaganda and misinformation campaign. That is till the 40 million Telanganites' market decides to hit back with a boycott.