On the face of it, the JNN and RETV cable channel acquisitions by the RJR Group was a natural fit. In much the same way that the cable channel TVJ Sports Network was set up ahead of the last Cricket World Cup to absorb the enormous quantity of cricket coverage available to the media group, it was felt that JNN could draw on the enormous news gathering capacities, infrastructure, equipment and importantly news staff of the RJR Group News Centre.
What seemed like a natural fit, has met upon resistance and territorial blocks. Not able to draw upon the immense resources available in the RJR Group, JNN has languished, not able to take full advantage of the natural synergies.
“Owen James, who reports on business matters for TVJ, is a natural fit to lead the business news coverage positioning that JNN was seeking, but rather than incorporate James into JNN, he was apparently stifled and resisted as I do not see him on JNN,”
“Another example is Anthony Miller, regarded as one of the best entertainment reporters in the country, a producer who presents a top rated weekly programme “Entertainment Report” on TVJ; Miller should have been brought in to shore up RETV.” Why these obvious moves were not made is beyond me, they were so natural,” was how one industry watcher summed up the situation.
In relation to Owen James and business content for JNN this is supported by a recent press report entitled “JNN targeting 5% of cable market”, published Friday June 13, 2008, by Jamaica observer business reporter Dionne Rose.
In the article, published some eighteen months after the acquisition, Gary Allen, then deputy managing director is quoted as saying,………
“The surveys show that the viewership to cable television is fairly high, probably somewhere around half and half in terms of local TV and cable. In the breakdown, however, of the cable channels watched, there is no single cable channel that has as much as five per cent. They are all below five per cent in terms of their viewership.
So we recognise that means in terms of watching cable, it is a niche approach and so JNN is positioning itself within that set of cable channels as a niche, which is focus on business and business related news, so that we can try and carve out our share of that business market that is direct niche.
Our plan is this financial year, for JNN to be a solid business as well as solid technical and programming channel and then having laid a solid foundation, then we will build on that by going to expand into the Caribbean and North America,” said Allen.
Another critical factor impacting the success of JNN was the fear that it would take revenues from TVJ, hence the perceived view to “hold it back”. It is well established that television revenue is highest during the 7pm -9pm prime time news slots. If JNN is to be regarded as a serious news channel, it must compete in this time segment as an attempt to maximize revenues. It was hardly expected that JNN would have been allowed to compete with TVJ at 7pm, so why it was not allowed to go head to head with the weakened CVM TV at 8pm is still a mystery.
Yvonne Wilks, recently appointed General Manager of the Cable Division was brought back to shake up and reorganize cable operation. Wilks, former Head of Corporate Affairs at telecommunications company Digicel, previously worked for seven years as Group Marketing Director for RJR. The cable division includes the Television Jamaica Sports Network, Reggae Entertainment Television and Jamaica News Network.
One of the first moves made and the clearest indication that the planned integration into the RJR structure is not working is that the cable operations is moving from Lyndhurst Road. Businessuite understands that Wilks is moving the cable operations to Constant Spring Road into offices adjacent to the Premier Plaza.
In a recent press release, Gary Allen said Kimani Robinson and Balram Vaswani, founding members and CEOs of RETV and JNN respectively, would continue to play integral roles in the two cable companies. However, Businesssuite understands that as part of the shakeup Kemani and Balram are no longer involved in the business on a day to day basis.
The RJR Group is still paying on the loan secured to acquire the cable operations from Robinson and Vaswani. Under the agreement reached in December 2006, the RJR Group through a related company Media Plus Limited acquired 80 per cent of the shares in JNN and a 65 per cent stake in RETV.
The price tag was United States (US) $1.75 million. On consumption of the deal, RJR handed over almost half a million dollars in “cash”, US$477,000, in the form of 7 million shares in RJR. At the time of the transaction, RJR stocks were trading at 4.70 down from 5.70 in January 2006, placing the value at JA$32.9M. Today, the stock is trading for 2.85, for a present day value of JA$19.9M, in essence Robinson and Vaswani have lost money on this deal and they may also be out of the company.
The balance of the purchase price was to be paid to Robinson and Vaswani only, on the achievement of a three year target, as well as the relevant regulation changes to allow “legal” advertising on Cable TV. There is still one year left (December 2009) to meet the three year target and the formal changes to the regulations are still pending. Based on these facts, this money may not be paid, at least for now anyway.
Yvonne Wilks
Wilks is quoted in a recent Gleaner story that “the merging of the three (cable) entities (TVJ Sports Network, JNN and RETV) would increase the leverage of the cable unit in creating better content and a greater platform for marketing and promotion.”
Gary Allen, for his part was quoted as saying that “The consolidation of the cable groups would provide significant benefits to each channel, in addition to the general improvement of the group.”
While the relaunch of RETV and JNN to gain national coverage, as well as the proposal to introduce RETV in more than ten Caribbean countries served to increase operating expenses for the RJR Group, whether these and all the other changes will give Yvonne Wilks, and importantly Gary Allen her boss, the means to turn things around, is yet to be seen.