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408 Anshu Chatterjeerestricted areas. More significantly, the local and state governments, who weredenied access to national television in the past, encouraged these channels. By1994, private regional channels, operated by an alliance between Indian businessesand external players, were transmitting into southern India, targetingspecific language communities. Similar to Zee TV, these channels formed thefirst layer of competition for the state and the transnational media companies.In Andhra Pradesh, the Eenadu newspaper group, owned by Ramaji Rao, aTelugu media mogul, established ETV using a Russian satellite to transmitinto the community. His television venture was supported by the regional proliberalizationTelugu Desam Party, in power from 1984. The relationshipbetween Eenadu and the political party was established at the time of thefounding of the party in 1983. When N. T. Rama Rao established the regionalTelugu Desam Party to compete with Indira Gandhi’s Congress Party,Eenadu’s editors candidly endorsed the party. Although Rama Rao’s initialpopularity derived from his acting career in Telugu films, Eenadu played asignificant role in promoting his political career (see Pandian, 1992). IndiraGandhi’s administrative style in the post-emergency era raised a red flag forthe community. When Rama Rao declared that the self-respect of the Telugupeople was “mortgaged” in Delhi by the state’s Congressmen, Eenadu’seditors backed his portrayal of the Congress as an outsider.This relationship continued throughout the 1990s. The state supportedEenadu by providing it with advertising revenues or presenting it with awardsand loans. When Eenadu launched its television venture, ETV, the distinctpattern of media involvement in the region’s sociopolitical activities wasapparent. While the national administration debated the extension of liberalizationmeasures, the new TDP leader, Chandrababu Naidu, invited globalcapital into the state to form partnerships with regional businesses. 6 The state’sopenness allowed Eenadu executives to take advantage of the availability ofglobal resources and the amenability of the state’s ruling party to new technologiesand capital. The paper and the channel also endorsed the policies ofNaidu that opened up the state’s economy. The founding of Gemini TV alsoprovides evidence of a similar pattern of association between the political andeconomic elites in the region. Gemini TV is owned by a regional businesshouse, the Prasad family, and Kalanidhi Maran, the son of a prominent politicianin the neighboring Tamil Nadu and the owner of Tamil Sun TV.From a state governmental perspective, the relationship between suchmedia ventures and the state’s economic elite could only be beneficial. Hence,in Kerala, when Sashi Kumar, a former executive officer of the Press Trust ofIndia, launched Malayali Asianet, the government of Kerala provided theinitial infrastructure. 7 In 1993, Kerala had yet to develop a cable infrastructure,unlike other Indian states consisting of larger urban areas. Therefore,Asianet also won the state contract to establish the cable system network