Chapter 290: Control
"Who? You mean there's Sun TV now?"
"Yes, according to the information I found, it was first broadcast in 1993." Mary has done her homework on this.
"So early?" Ron frowned. At that time, Soul Electric had just been established.
"It's a local TV station in Tamil Nadu, mainly broadcasting Tamil and Telugu programs."
"Wait," Ron turned his head sharply, "Who said Sun TV was operating in Tamil Nadu?"
"Yes, it was said that it was originally a small publisher that mainly published weekly magazines targeting women.
However, due to excessive piracy, the company was unable to make ends meet and had to seek new business breakthroughs, and they chose private television stations.
"How is Sun TV doing now?" Ron's eyes began to roll around.
"We rented other TV networks to broadcast four and a half hours of programs every day. These included Tamil movies and local current affairs news."
"Four and a half hours?"
"They have too little content to support 24-hour continuous broadcasting, so the broadcast time is mainly concentrated in the evening."
"So it's of average size? And didn't they build their own private TV station? Why would they rent from another TV network?"
"Good question!" Mary found a document on the bedside table. "There's a lot of knowledge involved in running a TV station. I've studied it for a long time."
There are three main types of television stations in India: wireless, cable and satellite.
Wireless television receives signals through signal towers, such as the two antennas on the head of the Sur TV, or the fishbone antenna mounted outside the house.
Wireless television is usually operated by official stations, such as All India Television, which is owned by the Indian National Broadcasting Corporation.
This kind of TV station has high infrastructure costs and is open to the public free of charge, because you need to cover the signal of the broadcast tower to most areas across India and ensure that even remote rural areas can receive the signal.
Except for the government's propaganda and popular science purposes, private TV stations will rarely choose this broadcasting mode.
The cost of building signal towers to cover the whole of India is astronomical, and no one would think of taking this path.
Cable and satellite TV have become the mainstream of private television stations, and their costs are relatively lower.
Cable TV, as the name suggests, receives signals through cables. Broadcasting companies will send pre-recorded programs to users' homes through the lines, and finally display them on TV sets.
This mode of operation has a strong regional color, and there is usually a cable TV operator in each region.
What programs are broadcast depends entirely on the resources available to the operator, and they are charged.
This is a closed-loop network with no supervision or censorship, so unscrupulous operators will broadcast very exciting programs late at night.
It is like a movie theater, which can only attract users in a certain area. However, due to its wild content, it has attracted a group of fans.
Since its opening in 1991, there have been tens of thousands of such cable TV operators, large and small, across India.
You can also treat it as a large Internet cafe. Users who connect to it form a local area network and then pay a monthly subscription fee.
This type of TV network is very fragmented, with operators of varying sizes, making it difficult to expand.
Finally, satellite TV has become the choice of most private TV stations today. It can cover most areas without building signal towers.
There are two ways to receive the radio. One is the traditional dish receiver, also known as a dish antenna. However, considering the installation and equipment costs, the cost is relatively high.
Another way is to distribute programming through cable TV operators.
That’s right, as network administrators, they can deliver the received satellite signals to users’ homes via cables.
The combination of these two can not only cover the signal to most areas, but also allow users to watch TV programs without increasing installation costs.
It's a great idea. Private TV stations don't need to invest too much to gain a considerable number of viewers.
"That Sun TV, is it a rented TV network?" Ron roughly understood the logic.
"No, you underestimate the operating costs of a satellite TV station." Mary pointed to a document.
"Satellite leasing?" Ron saw the point.
“India has almost no commercial satellites, and the private sector has no ability to launch commercial satellites, so it can only rent them from abroad.
However, the leasing price of commercial satellites in the international market is at least several million US dollars per year, which is about 200 million rupees.
Sun TV was originally a small publishing house, and they simply couldn't afford that much money, so they had to rent satellite channels from other TV stations.
"Is this equivalent to sharing a house? No, to be more precise, being a sub-landlord?" Ron was amazed.
“You know very well that Sun TV initially wanted to rent channels from Zee TV, which is the largest private television station in Mumbai.
However, due to competition concerns, Zee TV declined. Consequently, Sun TV approached ATN (Asian Television Network).
"So Sun TV is now stuck in someone else's home, without even having its own satellite channel?"
"uh-huh."
"They don't have enough strength, money, or content?"
"Uh-huh." Mary nodded again.
"That's no problem, our TV station will be called Sun TV!"
"What?" This time it was Mary's turn to be confused.
"I mean this name, from today on it belongs to us." Ron said confidently.
Tamil Nadu, it's a good place, he is very familiar with it.
His most beloved "Grandma" is a demigod-level powerful being there. Is there any trouble that she can't handle?
Oh, you're just relying on someone else's power. Pah! You feel like you have someone to back you up, but you're not afraid of anything.
"Just wait and see. I'll make a call now."
Ron flipped through the information in his hand and glanced at the page about the fake Sun TV.
Hey, the founder of Sun TV is called Chandran. Why does this surname sound familiar?
Feeling a little strange, Ron still called his "Mom".
As a result, after just a few words, his expression became extremely interesting.
"What's wrong?" Mary asked after he hung up the phone.
"What a fucking coincidence." Ron was speechless.
This Chandran was not his illusion, he was indeed very powerful in Tamil Nadu.
Kavya's aunt, Jayalalithaa, was able to enter politics because of a certain film star there.
He is the founder of AIADMK party, M. Chandran.
Jayalalithaa was once his lover, and later defeated his widow and inherited Chandran's entire political legacy.
Now, more than ten years later, Jayalalithaa has become the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu.
The founder of Sun TV is M. Chandran's nephew.
After all, there is still this connection.
Damn, it's a real ethical drama.
But it's not surprising when you think about it. It would be abnormal for a businessman who can succeed in India to have no connections behind him.
Although M. Chandran had passed away long ago, Jayalalithaa still took care of his family out of old friendship.
Ron told her about his plan, and Jayalalithaa agreed to help him connect with the business.
If you want to bring out the Indian characteristics and just grab the Sun TV name, it probably won’t be feasible.
The most optimistic outcome is that Ron spends some money to buy the trademark.
"That's a bit troublesome. Can you tell me more about ATN (Asian Television Network)? Sun TV rents their channels, right?"
“Technically speaking, ATN was the first private television station in India, and it started broadcasting a few weeks earlier than Mumbai’s largest Zee TV.
This TV station leases the Gorizont satellite from Russia to broadcast its own TV channels. It primarily broadcasts Bollywood feature films and movie songs, also for only a few hours a day.
"ATN is also pitifully small?" Ron's eyes lit up.
"Its situation is quite complex, as it currently only has two channels. ATN One: broadcasts foreign news and entertainment programmes, mainly targeting overseas audiences.
ATN Gold, on the other hand, focuses on Hindi films and general entertainment. The combined audience for both channels is around 8 million, which is not bad.
But they've been in trouble lately, both internally and externally."
"What do you mean?" Ron became interested.
Trouble means opportunity.
"ATN's Bollywood film rights are limited to satellite TV. But as you know, many users need to watch it through cable TV."
"Then what?"
"Zee TV holds the cable rights to more than 20 of these films, and the two are currently engaged in a fierce battle."
"This should be the external problem you mentioned. What about the internal one?"
"The Russian Gorizont satellite is very unstable. ATN has recently been frequently losing signal, preventing users from watching. Rumors also circulate that ATN owes the Russian satellite company nearly $1 million.
Until the debt was repaid, the Russians refused to help ATN resolve its satellite technical issues. Amidst internal and external difficulties, ATN's programming was suspended.
"It's off the air?"
"Yes, it just stopped broadcasting for three weeks this year and hasn't resumed yet. The rent Sun TV paid to it was used to maintain its own operations."
"Oh!" Ron's expression turned subtle. "That's really good news."
"What are you planning now?" Mary looked at him.
"What do you think about just buying ATN?"
Mary and Lena blinked and looked at each other, and saw the smiles in each other's eyes.
"I knew this guy's way of solving problems was always so simple and crude."
"Yes, just like in bed, I like it." Lena giggled.
"Just tell me if it's useful?" Ron spread his hands.
"It's rough, but efficient." Mary smiled.
"This way we can save a lot of trouble and don't have to start from scratch because the TV station is already there." Lena nodded frequently like a military advisor.
“We also have movie copyrights and music libraries, all in one place,” Mary added.
"The most important thing is that we have the means to control Sun TV." This is what Ron is interested in.
It’s hard to say whether you can convince the other party to transfer the trademark, but it should be no problem to bribe your landlord.
In this way, Ron suddenly became the landlord of Sun TV.
Wouldn't that give them the right to speak and the initiative? They've already taken advantage before the negotiations even begin.
Ron wasn't worried about Sun TV finding another way because, as Mary said,
The annual cost of leasing the transmitter and receiver of a commercial satellite is US$5 million and Rs 20 crore.
Because they couldn't afford the money, they looked for a second-hand landlord, but another competitor rejected them.
What a good opportunity! If we don’t act now, when will we?
(End of this chapter)
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