Punjab govt puts media owners in a bind

Punjab Government is apparently planning to go big on outdoor promotion of its achievements in the bid to shore up the ruling party’s prospects ahead of the General Elections this year. However, it is reliably learnt that the government is prevailing upon the local media owners to provide media to the government at the rate at which they had acquired the media from the local bodies. That would mean that the media owners will have no margins on the media provided.

A leading media owner told Media4Growth that “if we give sites without making any revenue then it will hurt our business badly and survival of our business will be difficult.” At the same time, it would be a challenge for the media owners to overlook the demands coming from the government.