MUMBAI: Every business and television channel faces competition sooner or later. Competing companies generally bring in better products. But, Udaya News, the first 24x7 Kannada channel that ruled the roost for over 15 years, saw a decline as rival channels presented stories with strong views -- a la Arnab Goswami.
Placed at the sixth position among the Kannada-language news channels as per the latest BARC India data, it is on the verge of closure. However, other Sun channels such as Udaya Movies, Udaya TV and Udaya Comedy will continue operations.
Ratings of Udaya News had started declining after a series of news channels came in, in the past few years and the former failed to put up a fight.
Karnataka viewers in the 1990s relied entirely on Doordarshan till Udaya News lauched in 1998; it is now shutting down owing to huge losses. In a letter addressed to the Karnataka government secretary, owner of Udaya News, Sun Network stated that the channel would cease operations on 24 October, and 73 employees would lose their jobs.
Udaya News enjoyed a wonderful viewership till the rise of TV 9 Kannada -- the leader today, followed by Public TV and Suvarna News.
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