Royal TV, a local television station wrapped up its commercial operations in country Tuesday, citing low revenues. According to the media house’s officials, the television station closed operations yesterday but the radio station of the same company will continue operations. The television station will henceforth serve as a training facility for students from the school of journalism at Mount Kenya University Kigali, which is also owned by the same proprietor. The television station was opened early last year after the acquisition of the now defunct Lemigo TV. Speaking to The New Times, Henry Musisi the company’s Director of Corporate Media said that financial constraints due to low revenues were among the reasons for wrapping up. “There have been financial constraints because it has not been making anything anyway,” he said. He said that the holding company will now concentrate on the core business, which is higher education. “Effective today we are closing. The TV will be made a training outfit for the school of journalism. We would like to concentrate on our area of specialty which is education and also because of restructuring whereby we are setting up centres of excellence, we thought the TV should be conjoined with the school,”Musisi explained. The development cost over 50 employees their jobs including journalists, technicians and support staff, according to Musisi. Musisi said that the firm had done enough to invest in quality production which unfortunately was not reflected in revenue returns and profits.
