Hyderabad: The talks on the sale of TV9 News channel has cropped up again and this time it is Telangana’s leading industrialist Jupally Rameswar Rao owned My Home Group is in talks to buy the news channel owned by Associated Broadcasting Company (ABCPL) that runs news channels in Telugu, Kannada, Marathi and Gujarati.
Mr Jupally Rameswar Rao known to be close to Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao’s family , is said to have developed interest in media business post Telangana formation and was looking at investing in regional language news channels.
If the negotiations reach a breakthrough, it could further consolidate the holding of persons close to politicians over regional media, both in print and electronic, in the Telugu speaking states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Presently, ABCPL is controlled by venture capitalist Srini Raju.
ABCPL, the company that operates six news channels under TV9 brand, was promoted by Ravi Prakash and Srini Raju’s investment entities iLabs Venture Capital and Chintalapati Holdings.
Ravi Prakash, who currently acts as CEO of the company, owns around 10% stake and a few of his colleagues together own another 10%, while the balance close to 80% is held by Raju’s investment arms.
Sources close to the development reveal that a delegation on behalf of Rameswar Rao met the top management of ABCPL and shown interest to buy the bouquet of regional channels, including News9 -the loss-making English news channel owned by the Group.”
ABCPL had given mandate to its investment bankers to look for buyers at a valuation of Rs 500-600 crore a couple of years ago. However, it could not seal the deal though it held talks with several interested players including some of the large national media houses.
However, the prospective buyer My Home Group is not interested to buy it at the current valuation and expect the channel to come down on the pricing.
TV9 Telugu suffered a major loss in revenue and viewership during the agitation and formation of Telangana state as the Media entity was accused of being an anti Telangana channel and the channel was taken off from distribution by Telangana MSO Association.
Many new entrants like V6 News managed to capitalize during this period and emerged as the top rated channel in Hyderabad, Telangana and in combined Rural Market.
