The News Minute | October 25, 2014 | 4.00 pm ISTWe watch news every day, but the stories of who owns the media organisations are as interesting as the news these channels report. According to data released by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, there are 394 news and current affairs channels in our country, out of a total of 669 television channels that have been given permission to function by the government. Here’s a short guide to who owns the news channels in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana:Click on these links for Kannada, Malayalam and Tamil news channels. Full list here.TELUGU Telugu channels have in the last few months clearly divided themselves into Telangana-loyal and Andhra-loyal categories. Andhra and Telangana put together have almost 35 24 hour news channels, at least 15 of them run by cable networks in districts. Andhra has a mix of channels- some owned by politicians, others by businessmen. Sleaze forms a big portion of news on these channels.TV9 Telugu is owned by Associated Broadcasting company Limited ABCL (Same as TV 9 Kannada) ABCL established in 2003, is one of the leading regional channel broadcasters in India. The company has two news based channels in Kannada and Telugu languages under the brand, TV9. Ravi Prakash is the CEO. Some months ago the channel was banned by Telangana CM K Chandrasekhar Rao for being 'anti-Telangana'. A month ago, TV 9 rebranded its second news channel Tv One as Jai Telangana. This news channel caters to Telangana, while TV 9 Telugu remains an AP channel. Sakshi TV- launched in March 2009 is owned by Indira Television Ltd. and is running under the chairmanship of Y.S. Bharati, wife of Jagan Mohan Reddy. Jagan is a member of the Legislative Assembly from Pulivendula constituency and is the son of the former Chief Minister of the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh, Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy. The channel is actively used by Jagan Mohan Reddy for political propaganda, especially against his political rivals. When he was arrested the channel ran consistent campaign claiming Jagan was innocentT News- The channel was launched in April 2011 and belongs to Telangana Broadcasting Private Limited. The channel is like the official mouthpiece of the TRS and has been branded the pulse of Telangana.ABN Andhra Jyothi is a channel owned by Vemuri Radhakrishna who is known to be close to the Andhra Chief Minister Chandra Babu Naidu. He also owns the Andhra Jyothi newspaper and rivals like Jagan and KCR has alleged that Chandra Babu Naidu had benami investments in Andhra Jyothi. In 2012, it was ABN that first played out sex tapes of the then Andhra Pradesh Governor N.D. Tiwari. This channel was also banned in Telangana, along with TV 9. When Naidu became CM of Andhra Pradesh, ABN was given the contract of covering and transmitting live signals of all his events.Raj News owned by Raj Network. Raj Television Network is a satellite television network established on 3 June 1994. Its Managing Director M. Raajhendran is a businessman who joined the DMK in June 2007 and owns 11.3% of the network. It owns a variety of television channels in multiple languages covering south Indian States.HMTV is a news channel owned by the Telangana based Hyderabad Media House Ltd. K Vaman Rao, Founder and Chairman of the Kapil Group, is the Chairman of the Hyderabad Media House group. Rao is a qualified Chartered Accountant and runs successful chit funds. Chief Editor and managing director of the channel is Y.Rajashekar, a senior journalist who has worked with many organisations in the past. The group also runs the Hans India newspaper and portal.V6 News - The channel started on 1 March 2012 and is owned by VIL Media Pvt Ltd a media company run by G Vivek, former Congress MP and his brother former AP Labour minister G Vinod. The channel that is pro Congress, was named V6 as there are six siblings including Vinod and Vivek. The channel's chief editor and CEO is Ankam Ravi, a seasoned journalist. Gemini News is a new channel run by the Sun Network (Sun Group is an Indian conglomerate group, based in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. The group was founded by Kalanithi Maran and his family members including his wife Kaveri Maran)NTV or New Generation TV is owned by the Rachana Television Private Limited (RTPL). A businessman called Narendra Chowdhury is the chairman and managing director of RTPLA and the channel. Chowdhury who is the Chairman of Jubilee Housing Board also owns women's channel Vanitha TV, devotional channel Bhakti TV and, has recently acquired INEWS (Telugu News Channel).TV5 a news channel by Shreya Broadcasting Pvt Ltd. is an Andhra based channel is owned by businessman BR Naidu. Naidu who used to run a travel agency struck it rich with a hair product called Nuzen Hair oil. Much of the profits from the hair oil business and subsequent businesses were channeled into the news channel and other media ventures.10 TV is a co-operative news channel and is run by CPI (M) members and loyalists. The channel is owned by a Communist loyalist Veer Bhadra. Prof K. Nageswar MLC from is the Chairman of the channel. The channel like a co-optative operates on money collected from CPI M members across the state.99% TV is a news channel run by women cadres of the CPI. It started out as a venture that will be run only by women, but did induct men finally. The channel's slogan says- "99% news is biased. Biased not towards a political group, but biased in favour of the people."Studio N is a 24 hour Telugu news channel which is aired in Andhra Pradesh and was started by businessman Narne Srinivasa Rao. His daughter late married popular actor and relative of Chandrababu Naidu, Junior NTR. The entire family was managing the channel, which was in in March 2014 sold to an entreprenuer named Srivatsava Sunkara. CVR News owned by Image Broadcasting Private Limited is named after the group's chairman and businessman C V Rao.ETV news Telugu a news channel run by Eenadu Television Pvt Ltd. The network has three news channels- ETV Telugu, ETV Andhra Pradesh & ETV Telangana. Though Network 18 took over most of ETV media ventures across the country, only the AP and Telangana ones remain with the parent company.