KOLKATA: On 28 March, a 24X7 Bengali news channel, Kolkata TV, will be ‘auctioned for sale’ under the supervision of the Kolkata High Court. Sources in the know said the stated base price would possibly be around Rs 50 crore. They also said that a few people have shown interest in the channel while some have even contacted the official liquidator.

“We are going to sell Kolkata TV and with the realized amount, the government will clear all the claims of vendors, financial institutions and employees,” said the official liquidator. He hinted that the base price would be fixed on 28 March itself and would be mostly above Rs 42 crore.

It is learnt that this is the third time Kolkata TV is on auction in the last one year, as no one showed interest on the earlier two occasions, given the high base price.

Launched in 2006 by SST Media, the ownership of the channel changed hands a couple of times. Some years ago, Hyderabad-based Associated Broadcasting acquired a majority stake in Kolkata TV via TV9. When contacted, TV9 officials simply said, “Associated Broadcasting has no more interest in Kolkata TV” suggesting that TV9 had sold off its stake in the channel.

 Kolkata TV airs a wide range of programmes including hourly news, analyses of major news events and international news.