Image Channel Growing Without Plans
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Ram Krishna Manandhar, Chairman, Image Channel |
Should one call it defiance of standard management principles or one of the unique features of the Nepali management style? Image Channel, which celebrated its 11 th anniversary recently, is about to complete two years of telecasting via satellite, and looking for ways to start a 24-hour news channel, has grown without extensive planning except for the technical aspects and is planning to grow without a detailed management plan, according to its Chairman Ram Krishna Manandhar.
His explanation is simply that it is difficult to plan the future in the Nepali business environment because of frequent changes in the rules of the government. It is easier to understand his point if one recalls that though Manandhar was the first to get the license to operate mobile telephone services in 2050 BS, the then government had taken it back soon. He fought a court case against the government to regain his license but abandoned it when it became clear that the court would award him only a paltry sum as compensation whereas his expenses in the project had already been in crores.
“Under such an unpredictable environment, we could not have the luxury to go by plans. Though we know that certain technical things such as the power of the equipment, operating system and the number of employees required to run the FM radio and TV businesses should be thought out properly, we can’t wait till all these requirements are fulfilled. So, we have to go ahead with whatever we posses and try to use them as best as we can using our technical expertise to improvise here and there,” he says.
Image Channel had started by buying a one and a half hour time slot in the government owned Nepal Television (NTV) in 2053 B.S., and later it got the license to have its own FM station and then own TV for terrestrial telecasts within Kathmandu . About one and a half years ago, it acquired Shangrila Television (STV), which has the license for satellite telecasts. STV is on the air with the Image Channel logo. Clarifying the confusion still remaining in the market, Manandhar says his company has not acquired Shangrila Channel, which is a separate legal entity. While Shangrila Channel was in operation as a wireless cable operator using MMDS technology, Shangrila TV was never in operation before Manandhar took it over.
The idea to start a 24-hour news channel came up because of the reality that ad revenue from news programmes is higher than from entertainment programmes. The operating cost of news channels is also lower.
In fact, Image Channel had started as an entertainment channel and it continued like that till the company started its own station for terrestrial telecast. Before the TV venture, Manandhar had started the FM radio business. Both the Image TV and FM operations of Manandhar have helped to promote such talents as Nima Rumba, Karna Das, Dhiraj Rai, Kunti Sundas, Ishwar Amatya, among others, who have gained celebrity status in Nepali music.
“Our channel helped Nepali singers in making musical videos at reasonably lower price and promoted these videos in grand scale.” he says, adding “And we are proud of the contribution we made to this field with our limited resources.”
Image channel also pioneered some of the entertainment programmes. Now similar programs are running also on other channels. But in news, it has been a follower particularly in FM radio. “This is because the government rules did not allow FM stations to broadcast news and we did not want to break rules,” says Manandhar. As other FM radios started telecasting news as well, Image too came up with its news bulletins and news-based programmes. And it turned out that news programmes are very profitable. At present, the channel has been running nearly a dozen news bulletins per day on Image TV alone beside broadcasting hourly news on FM radio. However, it has stopped English news bulletins and the reason was the lack of support from the market in terms of advertisements.
One reason why the entertainment programmes of Nepali TV channels don’t attract many advertisements, according to Manandhar, is the free availability of foreign entertainment channels. “For this reason, the advertisers of Indian brands don’t feel the need to advertise much in Nepali TV channels. The advertisers feel that the ads in the Indian channels are sufficient. The ads of such brands that appear in Nepali channels are much less compared to the market share of these brands in Nepal ,” he adds.
Explaining the strength of the company to go for a 24-hour news channel, Manandhar points out that among the six TV channels telecasting from Nepal (NTV, NTV Metro, Kantipur TV, Channel Nepal, Image Metro and Image), only Image Channel and Kantipur TV are running 24-hour programmes with live news at present. “Thus we already have the experience for a 24-hour channel. The only thing we have to do is to increase the strength of our news personnel by adding a few more people. Additional investment required is not much because the brand image, experience and technical skills are already there,” he says.
Employing some 250 staff, among whom about 100 are women (including the part timers and those in Image FM), the company is earning about Rs. 4 crores as revenue per year from the two TV channels and FM, but incurring a loss. This is despite the fact that Image Channel runs such popular entertainment programmes as Khota Baji/Samay Baji (comedy serial in Newari), SMS and More, Music of Your Choice/Hello Doctor (live audience interaction) and Ukali Orali (a folk song programme), Bagina, Khelaun Dohori, etc. Due to its coverage of about 70 countries via satellite, Image Channel also has a programme through which Nepalis living abroad send live messages to their families in Nepal.
However, the FM station is in profit and it is partly supporting the TV operation. “The rest is being met through a bank loan which is increasing, thus the need to go for a 24-hour news channel,” says Manandhar.
Still, the company has no definite plan for this. “We can start it within a month if the environment becomes favourable,” he says, indicating obviously to the on-going political uncertainties that other investors too blame for halting implementation of their new business projects.
