Hyderabad: The standoff multi system operators (MSOs) in Telangana and two news channels- TV9 and ABN Andhra Jyoti was dragging for past couple of months, ever since the new Telengana Governmenet came to power. Now, one of them has decided to take the initiative and end the ongoing war between MSOs and the channel.
TV 9 owned by the Associate Broadcasting Company (ABC) is seeking to have a dialogue with MSOs to get the channel back on air. ABC has reached out to the MSOs to enter into an agreement. It has written to the Telangana State Federation of MSOs.
As informed earlier by tvnews4u.com, This move from TV9 is due to the company’s ongoing lookout for a prospective buyer for the channel as it wants to exit the business. However, this standoff between the MSOs and the channel apparently seems to have affected its valuation in the market. As per the report, ABC plans to exit within a month or two. Edelweiss is running the sale process.
The reason for standoff is due to the airing of a content in June, The channel has allegedly telecast a programme that showed the Telangana government in a bad light due to which MSOs of the newly formed state decided to cut off signals to it. Meanwhile, the MSOs said that they would show the channels only if people asked for them.
While TRAI has fired a notice to Telangana MSO s, the Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar had also asked the state government of Telangana to clarify queries regarding the blocking. He said that MSOs cannot censor channels on their own and if they did, the Ministry was empowered to take action against them.
However, the other party ABN Andhra Jyothy which also got locked horns with Telengana MSOs is yet to blink and the channel continued to be invisible in Hyderabad and Telangana State.
