Why are TV channels being shut down in Pakistan?

​Now which TV channel will be closed next?

What are the reasons why TV channels are closed? Who are responsible ?  Non-professionals staff or highly paid anchors and CEOs 

By: Ahmad Saghir

In Pakistan, the 21st century is considered to be very important with regard to the media boom. Although we were far behind the rest of the world, yet social media, including electronic media and e-papers, not only started during President Musharraf's tenure, but also developed exponentially. President Musharraf's visit to Agra not only gave birth to the need for private TV channels, but these TV channels should also present the state's position to the world in a lively manner. 

Before the advent of private channels, the government used to depend only on government TV. Therefore, if PTV said anything, it was considered to be the government's position, so any talk of private channels was to be considered as the voice of the people. This was a thought that was understood by the Brajman government in the year 2000, so PEMRA came into being and licensing of private channels started. Initially, people were more inclined towards entertainment channels. It was the era of Dish TV and Pakistani women, men and children used to spend time watching dramas of Sony TV and Star Plus. In every other house in Pakistan, India had made a complete cultural invasion. Asking for the meaning of namaste, girls asking for Mangal Sutra to wear around their necks and wearing a saree to a wedding became a fashion. 

This situation was very alarming for a country like Pakistan. Thinking minds were engrossed in finding solutions and on the other hand, it was not easy to compete with 900 permitted channels of Indian media and more than 100,000 registered small and big newspapers. In Pakistan, people were not shifting to the TV channels created for the purpose of entertainment, the charm of PTV dramas was broken and Indian films and dramas of Star and Sony TV had made deep roots. Therefore, a complete ban was imposed on Indian channels in the first phase.

As a result of the ban, people tended to turn less to entertainment T-channels and more to news channels, and these news channels started providing entertainment in their talk shows and news. Every day in current affairs talk shows, quarrels, slaps, JUGUT , insults and abusive language in the name of infotainment are used.

It was all new to the people, but they were enjoying it. The Pakistani people used to laugh at the political upheaval and the frustration of the Musharraf era in the evening talk shows.

Although news channels in Pakistan started with a delay of twenty-two years, CNN in the world started operations on June 1, 1980 in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, and was broadcasting news around the clock. Although BBC had started its news on 2 November 1936, but in the 70s and 80s, the BBC had also established itself as a successful TV channel-based broadcaster. On February 5, 1989, Sky News began to achieve success. 

While in our neighbourhood, India was also far ahead of us in the form of Door Darshan in India in 1958 and later in October 1992 in the form of Zee News.

In such a situation when the world was far ahead of us in terms of giving 24 hours news, in Pakistan it was not decided how to manage the content of TV channels. There was a crowd trick that was clearly visible on every TV channel. A few media companies and a few TV anchors were not letting any other organization come forward or play any role in ethical content making. Sensationalism was the norm of Pakistan's TV channels. There was a race for breaking news and politicians and analysts who changed their coats and ties, who would come with a few sentences and play with the sentiments of the people in the name of party policy. 

On the other hand, the so-called drama of ratings, anchors changing channels, blackmailing in the name of advertising and increasing role of advertisers in content making were issues that no one wanted to talk about.

The only company working on the rating "Media Logic" and the lack of any other organization in this regard, was the reason that after that TV channels from the news set to the dress, style and content of the announcers also influenced the advertiser. Under the subject of the final began.

And then after that the spectacle started which no one had even thought of. TV channels running blindly in the race for ratings gradually got tired. AB and C categories started to be formed, the sword of rating was constantly hanging over the head of TV channels and the category race started immediately which took their breath away.

Gradually the TV channels started shutting down. There is a long list of closed channels including Indus TV, Waqt TV, and now Talon TV, Ruhi TV, Sohni Dharti, Vibe TV, Health TV, etc. Eventually they had to close down their operation due to zero advertisement.

The main reason for low income and high expenses is on one hand the huge salaries of anchors, TV owners choosing expensive equipment instead of smart solutions, and on the other hand some non-professionals who mislead various businessmen. They bring them to the field and in the name of the TV channel, they make money by sinking them. There is also an impression that if NewsT channel is started, black money can be whitened in Pakistan, one can get one's share in power politics, or one can blackmail government officials to end their cases. .

When non-technical and non-professional people entered this field, they started hiring people who were already holding big posts in major TV channels. Expensive bids started being given. But these were people who either understood management or had marketing knowledge.

I met the CEO of a big TV channel who had recently dipped the channel, when I asked him he was unaware of the "dip to black" transition in editing, he didn't know the difference between a camera shot and an angle. . Similarly, I know many people who don't even know the basic difference between sales and marketing in the media, but they consider themselves a successful headhunter.

Are there non-professional people from the senior top to the top in the TV channels who are spoiling the media market in the name of big buildings, big studios, big anchors, then the answer is yes. There was a time when T-channels were getting a birth in Pakistan, then there was only PTV in Pakistan, so it was not easy to hire people from PTV in news channels, so either people from PTV took leave. Cameramen and producers were hired to work or make wedding films, they were trained and made to work.

Maybe this series is still going on. There are still such faces in the media industry, such people are sitting on the big seats, who are neither interested in the fact that the channel may be shut down nor in the fact that because of them many People may lose their jobs.

Such non-professional, unethical, insensitive and selfish people are only interested in their commission which they get from expensive equipment during purchase. No one knows how many more TV channels these people will shut down. How many people will lose their jobs?

Mediapk@asia.com