Buying influence

A few months ago, a new current affairs television channel hit Pakistan’s airwaves. By all estimations this wasn’t a big deal. Pakistan’s media is a bloated, ungainly, over-saturated behemoth running simply on its own inertia. New news channels being launched and old ones shutting down is an everyday occurrence. 

What is often interesting, however, is who the owners of these channels are. Just take a look at the case of Suno TV, the brand new channel in question. Suno’s launch was accompanied by a significant marketing campaign. A drive around Lahore would show that the channel had spent a pretty penny on plastering their logo on any billboard and street light available. Among their roster they boasted a number of well-known analysts, journalists, and TV talking-heads that are household names. 

What was more interesting was the channel’s initial test run. Before going live on air, channels air stock footage on loop to test the running efficiency of their broadcast. In this phase, the stock footage Suno TV was running were ads for Blue World City — a real estate development project in Chakri on the outskirts of Islamabad.