Talking to The Indian Awaaz, the dynamic and young CEO the first Muslim-owned channel, Dr Mohammad Raza Hyder Adil said that the launch of the Munsif channel was a long cherished dream of the Muslims. “The community felt that they have not their own channel despite hundreds of other channels in the air” he said.
He said that his group wanted to end community’s dejection and took the plunge into this challenging field.
It may be recalled that after a decade after ETV Urdu was launched; another TV channel in Urdu has been launched from Hyderabad, which is one of the most important centres of Urdu. Adil says just like the ETV Urdu, Munsif would be a complete infotainment channel but it will try give to voice to community in the corridors of powers.
On a question that newsgathering being costly affairs in the electronic media, he said that Munsif has a network of 300 reporters in the country as well as abroad, furthermore, it has luxury of the Munsif daily’s network.
“We have dedicated the channel to the community just like the patron and owner of the Munsif daily Khan Lateef Khan has dedicated the paper to its staff when he bought the paper”, he added. When asked how he would tackle the cable operators’ lack of enthusiasm towards the channel, he said he was making all out efforts to convince them for beaming the channel, however, the community can act pressure group in this regard in their respective areas.
It is said that due to the cable operators’ monopolistic behaviour, Urdu channels are not visible in even Urdu-speaking areas. Among them is DD Urdu channel despite Information and Broadcasting ministry’s strict guidelines of beaming all DD channels. Of late there are new entrants in the Urdu electronic media; Zee group’s Zee Salaam and Aalami Sahara of Sahara group are notable among them. Salaam is more about religion and Islamic devotional programmes and poetry while Aalami Sahara focuses on news.
With the launch of Munsif TV, the fifth Urdu channel in India, there will be healthy competition and the audience will also get to see better coverage as the Urdu market grows despite negative predictions in the past. On the cut –throat competition, Dr Adil said the channel has a team of media experts and well- reputed journalists that will focus on new strategy of making the channel a trusted vehicle of the community.
On the falling standard of news presentation, he said the Munsif would give due importance to the (taqdus) dignity of news as it won’t sensationalize or trivialise any news story as practised by some other channels. He has also admitted that there was need to improve the standard of language used in the channel and so is the presentation that is not as professional initially.