Royal Television closes

Royal Television wrapped up its commercial operations in the country Tuesday, citing low revenues. According to officials, the television station closed operations yesterday but its radio station will continue operations. The television station was owned by Mt Kenya University of Kenya. Royal TV 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 the main the reason for closing shop. “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 television facility will be turned into a training place 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 said. The development cost over 50 employees their jobs, including journalists, technicians and support staff, he said. Musisi said that the firm had done enough to invest in quality production which unfortunately was not reflected in revenue returns and profits. editorial@newtimes.co.rw

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Royal Television closes