Chiranjeevi news not so good for Telugu news channels

Televisionpoint.com Correspondent | Hyderabad
Chiranjeevi, the popular Telugu actor pulls in crowds, but Chiranjeevi, the politician seems to have left audiences cold.

If the latest TAM ratings are any barometer to go about, people are grab being for the remote whenever reports on the superstar's political moves appear on screen. Chiranjeevi scored a low 0.8 per cent in the ratings game. The leading Telugu news channels are TV9, Eenadu TV, Gemini News, NTV and TV5.

Telugu news channels have been devoting much airtime to speculations about Chiranjeevi's political arangetram. But it has now become evident that not many were seeing the programmes.

A day after the attack on a newspaper office by suspected activists of the Madiga Reservation Porata Samiti, the leading Telugu satellite news channel aired a two-hour session with MRPS leader Manda Krishna Madiga.

A couple of days later, noted film producer and Chiranjeevi's brother-in-law Allu Aravind went to town claiming that the actor would jump into politics soon. Telugu news channels went hyper and started beaming special episodes with exclusive tidbits on the actor's party, flag and programme.

There were no takers for that stuff. "Manda Krishna's two-hour special earned us a TRP of 2.4 per cent whereas the four-hour show on Chiranjeevi's political moves got a mere 0.8 per cent," said Sreekanth, production in-charge, TV9 news channel.

Worse is the case of other Telugu channels that scored an average TRP of about 0.4 per cent. "News about Chiranjeevi is not selling well these days," said an executive of Gemini News.

Probably things will change once the star makes his dramatic entry into the arena. After all, Chiranjeevi has made a living out of keeping audiences on their seats. It seems that only political news relating to the Telugu film star Chiranjeevi is not selling.

When the actor's daughter Srija got married against his wishes a few months ago, TV channels made merry with TRPs touching an astounding six per cent and more.

News channels are usually happy even if the TRP touches two per cent but with the Chiranjeevi programmes not even crossing the one percent TRP, channel bosses are now a worried lot.

In fact, two Telugu news channels that have been vying with other on covering Chiranjeevi have not even crossed the 0.5 percent mark. The uneasy surmise is that people's interest in Chiranjeevi's political plans had waned with the actor postponing his entry several times.

"Six months ago, there was widespread anticipation about Chiranjeevi's political foray. There were many viewers for programmes on the actor. But as months passed without any action from his part, people have stopped taking his proclamations seriously." said Meenakshi Reddy of TV5 news channel.