Mumbai: According to reports from dailyhunt and India DTH, Sun TV Network is likely to shut down its Kannada news channel Udaya News, with effect from 24th October, due to mounting losses. As a result of the closure, 73 employees will lose their jobs. Sun TV Network made this revelation in a letter to Karnataka’s social welfare and department of labour secretary dated 24th August.
Industry sources also reveal that the Network is also planning to bring down the operation of its Telugu News channel Gemini News as part of the strategy to close down the loss making units. Apparently, both the channels are facing the axe owing to poor market share and ROI.
“We have been operating Udaya News division for the last 19 years and have made substantial investments in building the news business in Karnataka. Despite our best efforts, the news division has been incurring substantial losses over the past couple of years,” Sun TV Network stated in its letter.
“Further, given the competition Udaya News has faced, the viewership share of Udaya News is also relatively low and that has further worsened the situation. Considering the above, we are compelled to close down Udaya News for business reasons, as we are not able to justify the insurmountable losses which have been accumulated and which it continues to incur.” the letter added.
The Kannada News broadcasting market is dominated by TV9 Kannada, Public TV, Suvarana Newsetc… and the Telugu News market has V6 News, TV9 Telugu, NTV, TV5, Studio 9 etc as the top contenders.
Though Udaya News and Gemini News had the beginners’ advantage in both the market, it failed to capitalize in on the advantage due to lack of innovation and initiative.
Even in Tamilnadu and Kerala Sun News and Surya News have lost its market share to its competitors and new entrants owing to similar reasons. Market sources also reveal that the future of Suvarna News is also hanging in uncertainty as the channel is also facing similar issues like Udaya News and Gemini News.
