Thread by @Profdilipmandal

1. The story of #NDTV ownership involves media mogul Rupert Murdoch, the infamous Indiabulls, fugitive liquor baron Vijay Mallya, Mukesh Ambani, and now Gautam Adani who bought it from him.  

 A thread.

2. NDTV’s ownership changed hands many times over the years but @ndtv has always sat pretty in corporate Godi (lap). The story goes like this:

3. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, when Doordarshan started commissioning news/current affairs shows to private companies, Prannoy Roy and Radhika Roy took the opportunity and started making current affairs programs for it using DD’s resources.

4. After a policy shift, when private news channels got the permission to downlink, many companies including NDTV came into the channel business. But Roys weren’t the investors. Rupert Murdoch’s company STAR put in the money and NDTV provided the content.

5. Thus, the NDTV-Star alliance took shape in 1998. The name of the channel was Star News. Pranay Roy had found a filthy rich Godi.

6. The contract was for five years. But NDTV failed to provide good exciting content. Star News was losing viewership. NDTV employed kids of many top bureaucrats. They loved studio-based TV and discussion-based shows. Ground reporting was not their idea of journalism.

7. NDTV's Hindi channel NDTV India was launched in 2001. It had fierce competitors like Aaj Tak and Zee News. NDTV India has had an image of a lazy channel from day one. No energy. Anchors loved giving long sermons.

8. This channel could not withstand the energy of Aaj Tak and Zee. NDTV India survived on the revenue of its English sibling, which wasn’t much. NDTV Profit, the third channel, also never took off properly. CNBC was the leader in business news space.

9. Rupert Murdoch's deal with NDTV was to continue till 2003. But his son James Murdoch was getting restless. Money was draining out. Content provider (NDTV) wasn’t doing its job properly. Viewership remained a big problem area.

10. Then Murdoch said ‘Enough is enough’. Soon after the deal period ended in 2003, Murdoch launched his own Star News in India. It later changed hands and became ABP News. NDTV was forced to launch its own channel with its own money.

11. Until now, NDTV was being run with the help of government money (Doordarshan’s resources) and later on Rupert Murdoch’s money.

12. Prannoy Roy's business acumen was tested and he failed. Within 3 years of the termination of the contract with Murdoch, the company became so battered that in 2006, it had to take a loan of Rs 400 crore from Indiabulls. Indiabulls perhaps had some ill-gotten money.

14. NDTV’s finances had gone terribly wrong. The company was battered but instead of reducing expenditure, it started investing in new unviable projects. In 2007, Prannoy Roy launched another channel NDTV Good Times by signing up with liquor baron Vijay Mallya.

15. NDTV got Rs 100 crore advertisement commitments from Vijay Mallya. Good Times never clicked with the audience. People had access to fashion TV. NDTV Imagine, a Hindi entertainment channel, also failed.

6. NDTV also tried to go local and launched Metro Nation in Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai. For the Chennai version, NDTV roped in The Hindu Group. These local channels were a disaster.

17. NDTV might still have survived had there not been a global recession. Advertisement revenue shrunk dramatically after 2008 and avenues for easy money closed shut. NDTV was on its way to doom.

18. To repay Indiabulls, NDTV took a loan from ICICI. To pay off this debt, it took a loan from Ambani's front company VPCL. 
But NDTV was in no mood to repay the loan. Perhaps it didn’t have the money.

TRP ratings were going south and revenue from advertisements was negligible. In the meantime, VPCL ownership changed thrice. In the third instance, Nahata, an Ambani front man, sold off VPCL to Adani.

20. VPCL owns 30% of NDTV. Adani media is now moving to have complete control of NDTV through open offer. The loan that once belonged to Ambani was transferred to Adani. SEBI has endorsed Adani’s position in this matter.

21. The only mystery in this story is why Ambani sold off the loan provider and thus a large stake in NDTV to Adani. There are two likely reasons. First, Ambani did not want to own the NDTV channel.

People weren’t watching it and it wasn’t making money. Moreover, some people in the channel wanted to bring a ‘revolution’ with corporate money.

22. Second, someone from the government or BJP explained to Ambani that he already controls one-third of the media space in the country. Let Adani take NDTV. No government wants media monopoly.

23. Similar things happened when Ambani tried to take over Zee Entertainment. He failed to seal the deal. Zee finally tied up with Sony and the company did not go to Ambani. It seems that the central government had shown displeasure over the proposed takeover.

24. In Niira Radia Tape #132, Radia was actually heard saying that (the Ambani group) had to help Prannoy Roy. That was in 2009. Ambani money came soon after. That tape is now with the Supreme Court.