The Kannada television industry is going through a tough time. While many channels are shut, thousands of employees are terminated. The situation has become so difficult that most of the channels are running the footage they shot before the lockdown.
B Suresha, a show producer, said, “Post lockdown, the advertising agencies have majorly cut their budgets on advertisement, hence the biggest challenge is to have continuity in production. Earlier, there were almost 75 big shows were available on different channels, and now there are only 12-15.”
Shows like Crazy Colonel, Majaa Talkies and Bigg Boss are re-run to fill the slots.
SV Shiv Kumar, a TV producer, said, “We have about 6000 people working in the Kannada television industry. Out of which, 60 to 65% paid on daily basis, but right now nobody is available.”
Navaneeth CM, Business Head of Kasthuri Media Pvt Ltd, echoed the same sentiments. He said, “Post lockdown the viewership has increased but not the business. And Advertisement consumption has fallen across channels. Plus the distribution cost has not come down. Earlier cable share was 60% and DTH was 40%, now cable has 43% share and DTH has 57%.”
In such a situation, the fate of the Kannada TV industry is likely to take months to revive its revenue model.
(Author Reena Poonacha is an entertainment journalist)
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