Moon TV catches the viewer's pulse in Agra

MANDATE 2004/ ELECTION PROGRAMMING: Local news channels rides election fever

Move over Star, Moon's here! Candidates for the Lok Sabha elections in Agra are not too concerned with the exit poll results being brought out by the major national networks. Their eyes are glued to the exit polls being shown on Moon channel, Agra's very own television news and entertainment channel.

So if you are not a star on any other channel and if you are from Agra, then the Moon network wants you. The exit poll, being telecast on May 6, covers Agra, Mathura, Jalesar and Firozabad, in short, everything that a national channel will not give you.

The television network, which started as just another cable network a couple of years ago, has over a lakh subscribers now.

It offers a bouquet of five channels, including Moon News, Cinema, Moon Namaste, Moon TV, and Music. The network has successfully marketed the "think global, act local" credo.

Apart from a 24-hour news channel full of local happenings, there is programming showcasing local talent as well.

Programmes like Antakshari and Tak Dhina Dhin have discovered many a local Govinda or Lata Mangeshkar.

Reporters for the channel are mostly young people, who cannot move out of the city but would like to work as a TV journalist.

"My family will not allow me to live on my own in Delhi, so I applied here and got to be a TV personality as well," says Pooja, an anchor for the channel who has her very own fan following.

"I want to be like Pooja," said Shivaranjani, a BA student at Agra College, confessed shyly.

The network is being bankrolled by local liquor baron Bhai Mohan Singh. "We had originally thought of just a regular subscriber network, but later looking at the popularity of TV news, we thought why not launch one here," says Rahul Paliwal, the channel chief.

The network has really come into its own during the Lok Sabha polls, so much so, that candidates are accusing each other of bribing Moon Channel "officials" for favourable coverage.

There were accusations that the BSP candidate Keshav Dikshit had bought time on the network, yet another rumour was that the accusation was a 'Manuwadi' conspiracy floated by the Samajwadi Party and the BJP.

The network has a strength of 65 staffers, out of which there are 11 reporters.

"A lot of our reporters find jobs in other TV channels in Lucknow and Delhi," adds Paliwal.

Paliwal claims that they are the first such channel to do local programming.

"We also hold a workshop every summer for youngsters who want to get into television," he says.

Next stop? Moon TV Institute of Communication, perhaps.