Telangana CM K Chandrasekhar Rao

NEW DELHI/HYDERABAD: Ahead of crucial assembly and Lok Sabha elections in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana next year, political parties in the two states are bolstering their arsenal with media entrepreneurs said to be close to TRS chief and Telangana CM K Chandrasekhar Rao and actor-politician Pawan Kalyan taking over news channels.

In the last month and a half, the media industry in the two states has been abuzz with talk of change of ownership of news outlets and most of the new bidders are Hyderabad-based businessmen with no history in the media sector.

Sources said the biggest Telugu news channel, TV9, owned by ABCPL (Associated Broadcasting Company Private Ltd) in which 80% stake is held by Chintalapati Srinivas Raju, is up for sale. Apart from two Telugu channels — TV9 and TV1 — ABCPL runs the English news channel News9 and also TV9 Karnataka, TV9 Gujarati and TV9 Marathi.

The names of real estate tycoon Rameshwara Rao of the ‘My Home’ group and infrastructure developer Krishna Reddy of Megha Engineering and Infrastructure Company (MEIL) are doing the rounds as top bidders for majority share in TV9.

While Rameshwara Rao is seen as close to KCR, the MEIL group built several projects in the previous Congress regime as well as in the present regime in Telangana and Andhra. Krishna Reddy is considered to be on equally good terms with KCR, his Andhra counterpart Chandrababu Naidu and also the BJP regime at the Centre.

ABCPL director Clifford Pereira told TOI, “Ongoing discussions regarding sale of shares of one of the promoters has nothing to do with the elections. There are no political connotations. It is a purely business process.”

Pereira added, “TV9 management team under the leadership of its CEO Ravi Prakash is set to take over ABCPL with two major international investment funds and local investors. The process is in an advanced stage of discussion. There will be no changes to the current management of TV9 and no hindrance to the expansion and growth plans of the network both in India and abroad.”

Rameshwara Rao has also bought a stake in the number two Telugu news channel NTV, which is owned by Narendra Choudhury.

Sakshi TV is owned by Y S Jaganmohan Reddy’s family. ABN Andhra Jyothy, owned by Vemuri Radhakrishna, is seen as close to Chandrababu Naidu.

Two Telugu news channels — CPM-owned 10TV and CPI’s 99TV — were recently bought by business houses close to political leaders.

Less than two months ago, 99TV was taken over by a company called New Waves Media promoted by Thota Chandrasekhar, a businessman belonging to the Kapu community who holds a position in actor politician Pawan Kalyan’s Jana Sena Party. Chandrasekhar, a former IAS officer, owns real estate company Aditya Constructions and joined JSP after quitting YSR Congress. He was not available for comments when TOI tried to contact him.

CPM (Spoorti Communication Private Limited) owned 10TV too changed hands recently. While the buzz is that Rameshwara Rao and industrialist Nimmagadda Prasad have bought it, channel CEO Gottipati Singa Rao said, “Two weeks ago, I and other Indian investors acquired shares in the company. There are no politicians in it and it is not true that industrialist Nimmagadda Prasad and ‘My Home’ Rameshwara Rao invested in this.”

Telugu channel T News, established in 2010, is owned by KCR’s nephew Joginapally Santosh Kumar, who quit as director of the company before being elected to Rajya Sabha recently. His wife Rohini is a director. Kumar told TOI, “Most TV channels were owned by Andhra industrialists. There was no voice for Telangana movement then and T News was founded with the sole aim to give voice to the separate Telangana movement. We are not for any political party, during the agitation, we covered all who joined the movement.”

