KTN, nearly crippled by the exit of presenters and reporters, appear to be waking up to the reality that it must act or be trumped by competition. The TV station has hit back at Royal Media Services, which has taken some of its top journalists.
KTN has now hired Viusasa news editor Sam Gakunyi, who joins the Standard-owned broadcaster as assignments editor. Gakunyu’s exit is likely to shake Viusasa, the video-on-demand subsidiary of Royal Media Services which is already experiencing financial challenges and apathy from content producers.
Viusasa, owned by Content Aggregators Ltd (CAL), runs a news team of 12, led by Gakunyi, a former producer with Citizen TV. At Citizen TV, he was producer for the morning Power Breakfast, Citizen Extra and 10 over 10 shows. Before joining RMS, Gakunyi had worked at Ebru TV as reporter and anchor.
Gakunyu is one of the journalists who had been approached by BBC at Royal Media but it’s not clear why he opted for KTN instead. His former colleagues Sylvia Chebet and Mercy Kandie took up the BBC offer.
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Headed by George Waititu, Viusasa is now left limping after nearly a dozen dubbing producers were shown the door due to stagnant revenues. Insiders say the RMS has been unable to sustain the dubbing producers, the gang of guys who translate Viusasa to different vernacular languages.
