NDTV, the most popular national television channel, has taken over the editorial board of Sakshi television channel, promoted by YSR Congress party president Y S Jaganmohan Reddy.
According to reliable sources, the two-year contract between the managements of the NDTV and Sakshi has come into effect from June 1.
As per the contract which is worth Rs 20 crore, the NDTV will manage the editorial department of Sakshi for a period of two years. It will formulate and execute the editorial content of Sakshi and all the editorial staff of Sakshi will now have to report to the editorial head to be appointed by NDTV.
The existing staff of the Sakshi channel will continue, unless the NDTV team feels any of the staff members does not match its editorial standards. Besides, it can appoint any fresh faces as per its requirement. However, Sakshi will continue to hold the management in rest of the departments.
The arrangement, which came as a surprise to many, is believed to be part of Jaganmohan Reddy’s strategy to bring in professionalism in the editorial content.
However, one wonders whether or not Sakshi channel will continue the Jagan bhajan or introduce any new programmes to attract the viewers. In any case, it is evident that Jagan is hell bent on making Sakshi a No. 1 channel in the state.
What is surprising is the way NDTV management accepted Jagan’s offer.
First of all, Sakshi will be the first vernacular venture for NDTV and it has no reach in the rural parts of Andhra Pradesh, leave alone South India.
Secondly, the bigwigs in NDTV have close connections with the powers-that-be in the UPA and top head like Barkha Dutt have direct access to Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh. One wonders how they accepted to take over the channel of Jagan who is dead against Sonia and Singh. Well, money is all that matters!
