‘Bloodbath’ at TV18 Group as sacking spree begins

TV18 Broadcast Ltd, which runs several television news channels, on Friday started handing out pink slips to 325 or more staffers across channels and jobs, terminating the services of journalists, camera crew and personnel in the technical, sales and marketing departments.

The retrenchments in channels, including CNN-IBN, CNBC-TV18, IBN7 and CNBC Awaaz, are said to be the largest ever seen in the Indian media industry. They are part of a massive restructuring that involves the integration of some of the group's newsrooms and reducing costs as it seeks to cope with a turbulent economy that has affected the advertising market, according to TV18 officials.

''There is silence, the office is less crowded and it's been like this for a week now,'' an employee of IBN7 network reportedly said.

Various reports said that the section that has been hit hardest is production teams, including cameramen, technicians, and editors. Many morning news anchors have also been asked to leave, along with teams handling feature programming and entertainment shows.

TV18 Broadcast has reduced its staff by 30 per cent of the group's total estimated workforce of 1,300 people.

The broadcaster is a part of Network18 Media and Investments Ltd, the listed holding firm.

''It's a bloodbath, the camera section has been massacred, technical and operations teams have been hit,'' said the employee based in New Delhi.

Rajdeep Sardesai, editor-in-chief, IBN 18 network, tweeted late last night on a note that struck many as insensitive, ''Hurt and pain can be lonely. You must grieve in solitude.''

An employee in Mumbai who found himself suddenly jobless said, ''We were called to the office and were simply handed the letters. Almost the entire crew at IBN7 has been asked to leave. Those of us who have not been given the termination letters are in terror of being handed one any moment.''

A lot of the half-hour feature shows like Living it Up (a popular lifestyle show aired on weekends) have been discontinued, while teams of other shows like Citizen Journalism have been halved.

The indirect control that Reliance Industries Ltd has over the media house has triggered talk that the restructuring is being engineered by RIL and its chairman Mukesh Ambani. Some 18 months ago, Reliance committed around Rs4,800 crore in cash and assets towards the TV18 group.

The media group, which has a presence in the television, movies and the e-commerce business, reported a net profit of Rs19 crore for the June quarter against a loss of Rs90 crore a year earlier. Advertising revenue grew 6 per cent to Rs227.5 crore.