When Kanwar Sandhu, senior journalist and managing editor of Day and Night News, resigned on Friday, he did so after publicly putting the blame for the three-year-old multilingual channel’s financial problems on the machinations of a “powerful political entity in Punjab,” aimed at snuffing out “fair and free journalism.”
From August 1, the channel, owned by the Kandhari group of industries, has gone off the two major DTH platforms from which it was operating and is reportedly scaling down its operations. This means laying off around 50 employees.
In an address to the employees, which was put on YouTube, Mr. Sandhu congratulated the political entities of Punjab on succeeding in their designs. He said the politicians who run “a group of news and entertainment channels are behind the cartel that controls the cable network in Punjab. We exposed its designs and our plea that the Fastway group of cable companies has been abusing its dominance to deny us access to the Punjab market has also been upheld by the Competition Commission of India [CCI].”
Since denial of access to Punjab led to reduced TRPs and resultant low advertising revenue, the channel was bleeding financially, month after month, Mr. Sandhu said.
Within two months of inception in 2010, the news channel began facing problems from the Fastway group that controls 85 per cent of subscribers in Punjab and Chandigarh, and in February 2011 it was taken off the air.
This drastically reduced the reach of Day and Night News in Punjab, its target area of viewership.
