What explains media baron Subhash Chandra's aggression in news

Mix of politics, business imperatives seems to be driving media baron's current aggression of news

It is not without reason that media baron Subhash Chandra is regarded as a man for all seasons. The 66-year-old Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament (MP) from Hissar has managed to stay relevant for the last three decades since his entertainment channel Zee TV first burst onto the media scene in October 1992. 

From then to now, the ace businessman, who first began a packaging unit called Essel Propack before stepping into media, has taken the latter into many domains — print, digital, radio — and expanded the television business into movies, music, news, regional, niche and international channels. 

Observers say his current obsession with news media is driven partly by political and business imperatives.

Chandra, for long, has been keen to fill key gaps in his news media business, led largely by a portfolio of Hindi and regional language news channels under the Zee News banner. 

Most media analysts and observers say that Chandra is best-placed to execute his plan now with a friendly regime in power. Chandra is a man, they say, who is clever at seizing opportunities at the right time.

In the past one year, Chandra has quickly launched WION or 'World is One News' English news channel, demerged his television and print media businesses into separate entities and has taken his English-language newspaper DNA (Daily News & Analysis) into more cities (launched a Delhi edition last year, with plans for more).

Therefore, speculation about his interest in Anil Ambani's business news channel BTVi should be viewed through this prism. 

An English-language business news channel is something Chandra has been wanting for long. Why? Because it completes the loop for him in a space where he currently has a Hindi-language business channel — Zee Business.

Business news in India has been dominated largely by English-language channels such as CNBC-TV18 and ETNow. With a combination of English and Hindi business news channels, Chandra will also close the gap in advertising, media experts said. It will be easier for him to get access to advertisers who are visible on English-language business channels, pushing them onto his Hindi-language business channel too for a small price. This way, experts say, he will ensure that visibility for his advertisers is doubled.

All eyes then will be on this transaction, estimated at Rs 100 crore, and when it will come through.