Turner Broadcasting shuts Imagine TV

Turner Broadcasting System Asia Pacific,a division of Time Warner8217;s Turner International,has decided to shut down its Hindi general entertainment channel GEC 8216;Imagine TV8217;,as it failed to attract advertisers which hit its cash flows. Turner acquired the channel from NDTV in 2009.

Lack of cash flows put pressure on the channel whose production and star costs are higher. The channel,known as NDTV Imagine before being sold, was consistently ranked low in the highly competitive General Entertainment Channels segment dominated by Star,Sony,Colors and Zee. Imagine lagged Sony8217;s sister channel SAB and Star8217;s youth channel Star One recently relaunched as Life OK.

Imagine TV has not performed and grown as per expectations. While some programmes delivered satisfactory ratings,overall the channel was unable to achieve the ratings consistency needed to sustain the business and support continued investment,8221; said Siddharth Jain,managing director South Asia,Turner International India.

8220;We will use our best endeavours to make this as smooth a transition as possible for them.

Imagine TV was launched by NDTV in partnership with NBC Universal,as part of NDTVs diversification into non-news broadcasting.