State Owned (CHANNEL-EYE) to be leased Rs.25 million/month—rate to —LYCA(rumored).

Due to never being able to attract or to retain a loyal viewer base through it’s contents or not being bale to generate any advertising revenue through marketing Sri Lankan state owned channel-EYE is to be leased for LYCA group for the sake of just to stay afloat enabling it to cover it’s basic operational costs and staff’s wages.

Ever since the channel was started back in 1998 when the Sri Lanka’s media landscape was only occupied by handful of channels and with very to few privately owned channels, it was more than able to make considerable headway through both content viewership and advertising revenue.

But as of today in an era of digital streaming platforms and technology where not just online platforms but also offline yet digitally embedded technologies such as satellite technology readily available with no licensing charges, traditional Analog based media institutions such as all Sri Lankan state owned channels had become nothing short of irrelevant to the mass Sri Lankan Public. Particularly to younger audiences.

Minister of Mass Media Bandula Gunawardena revealed these details behind channel-EYE being leased at in a Parliament decision press conference held at Colombo. Minister further clarified that for the government it is no longer feasible to provide financial assistance to channel-EYE simply because for the past durations it hasn’t generate any revenue for the government.

He further clarified ministry has requested approval of the Parliament in regards to renting of the channel and was informed no such approval is required due to it is an only a measure to keep the media channel at minimum operational state without being closed and to prevent additional expenses been incurred for the government.

Channel was given to LYCA on a monthly rental basis of 25 million rupees where they will be making use of the it primarily for sports centric programs broadcasting.

Due to higher electricity costs Minister pointed out government was forced to drastically cut down On-Air time of the state owned channel-EYE to a bare minimum 4 to 5 hours per day. Despite having transmission coverage of 80% of Sri Lankan territory, within the bidding process there were very little interest shown by potential bidders for an operating agreement through a rental condition. On the next upcoming board meeting an agreement likely to be made with a suitable party in regards to long term renting of the channel for with an expected amount of 25million per month.