FYI TV18 shuttered as leadership didn’t translate into adequate monetisation

Network18 Media & Investments Limited yesterday revealed the reason behind the shutdown of India’s number 1 lifestyle channel FYI TV18. The network in its quarterly investor update stated that the channel had to be shuttered down due to lack of monetisation.

“The channel has been shuttered from 5th July as part of a portfolio review, since its dominant leadership position was not translating into adequate monetisation due to genre-pressures“, Network18 stated in its investor update.

While Network18 had earlier chosen not to comment on the shutdown, the reason behind its shuttering has now come to the front. FYI TV18 despite being the market leader for a long time in the Lifestyle genre with a market share of over 56.6% in India couldn’t generate enough revenues to sustain.

In a market which is heavily dependent on advertising revenue than subscription revenue the cheap a-la-carte pricing of Rs 0.25 for the SD channel and Rs 1 for the HD version would have made FYI TV18’s revenue more or less reliant on the advertising revenue.

The channel shut its operations earlier this month on 8th July bringing down AETN18 offerings to 2 in India while leaving FYI TV18 fans distraught. History TV18 is now the lone channel from A+E Networks and Network18 JV AETN18 which has a market share of over 24.5% in the factual entertainment genre.