MUMBAI: Taking a cue from other political parties in Andhra Pradesh, the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) is planning to launch its own Telugu news channel christened Orange TV in order to take its ideology to the common people and counter propaganda of TV channels run by other political outfits.

The political outfit, which wants to establish a foothold in the state, is planning to invest Rs 2.5 million in building a facility at the party?s four-storied state office building.

"The channel will provide a platform to people to debate the party?s political ideology and promote value-based politics in society," BJP state unit president Kishan Reddy has been quoted as saying.

"The BJP and more than 60 organisations that share its ideology hope that Orange TV will help them send messages and thoughts directly to their viewers and may even consolidate and improve their vote bank by 2014."

Andhra Pradesh has a plethora of political-agenda driven media platforms which includes T channel run by sympathisers of Telangana Rashtra Samiti. YSR Congress, the breakaway faction of Congress party, runs Sakshi TV owned by its president Y S Jaganmohan Reddy.

The influx of political agenda driven channels has forced India?s leading television network Zeel to exit Andhra Pradesh market by shutting down operations of its Telugu news channel Zee 24 Ghantalu.

MUMBAI: Raj Television Network, which operates 12 channels in five languages, has reported its net profit rose 71.66 per cent to Rs 32.1 million in the quarter ended 30 June from Rs 18.7 million a year earlier.

Sales of the Chennai-based television network rose 23.44 per cent in the first quarter to Rs 162.7 million in the quarter ended June 2012 from Rs 131.8 million a year earlier.

Raj?s expenses rose to Rs 120.13 million during the quarter from Rs 111.15 million due to an increase in cost of revenues to Rs 62.95 million from Rs 53.91 a year earlier.

Raj TV Network has five channels in its Tamil bouquet spanning across general entertainment, music and news. It has two channels each in Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada, mainly in the news and music genre. The network also has a Hindi channel, Raj Parivar.