Here today, gone tomorrow is the case with television channels these days.
Most of the channels or publications come into existence with some political agenda. But once they become operational, the overhead costs exceed the revenue generated and they shut shop as quickly as they open.
In fact, there are a couple of newspapers in the city which are just about surviving with minimal staff and bare minimum salaries.
It is a known fact that one channel that closed its operations recently is Zee 24 Hours.
Now, looks like it’s the turn of Maha TV. The channel is the brainchild of Telugu Desam party MP Sujana Choudhary and ex Andhra Jyothi employee Venkata Rao.
Well, the story goes that Sujana Choudhary put in the money and left the onus of running the channel to Venkata Rao.
However, Rao could not handle the heat and the channel lost its reckoning. But with the forthcoming elections in mind, one last attempt was made to infuse life into the channel.
Meanwhile, there was talk that Lokesh, son of Nara Chandra Babu Naidu, was interested in taking over the channel. In the nick of time, he decided that it was a better strategy to opt for a new channel instead of going in for a dying channel. So, he showed interested in 6TV instead.
On the other hand, Sujana Choudhary tried to take over the reins and revive Maha channel. This time, he handed over the task to his close aide and friend AVS. Unfortunately for him, AVS fell ill and later passed away.
There is strong rumour in media circles that the channel staff is now confronting the management about the salaries due to them.
It is heard that when the management behaved rather rudely, the fight got escalated to the labour ministry and the human rights commission.
With the situation turning to the worst, Sujana Choudhary is said to have asked for a compromise. He is said to have offered one-fifth of the salaries due and in return demanded for the cases and petitions to be withdrawn.
