Speaking to The Financial Express, S D Guru Dutt, chief executive officer of Vijay Television said that the channel was currently negotiating with foreign institutional investors and also a few media related businesses to pick up a stake in Vijay television.

Vijay TV is basically looking for partners who would play a major role in its growth in the future. ``We are looking for long term partnerships with companies which have the expertise in this field and the financial strength,'' Guru Dutt said.

Within the next two or three months, Vijay TV would have to pay Rs 5.5 crore to Eagle Communications, the initial promoters who had sold out to the UB group for a total consideration of Rs 12.5 crore, of which Rs 7 crore has already been paid.

Vijay had got into financial trouble because of the ambiguity of the broadcasting policy. United InternationalHoldings, a European cable network was to pick up 50 per cent of the equity. But due to the dilly-dallying of the broadcasting ministry over the permissible stake of foreign companies in India media, the proposal was dangling for a long time. Finally, United International turned its sights to greener pastures.

With the requisite capital not coming in, Vijay TV had difficulty promoting itself. Currently, the channel is losing at least Rs 50 lakh a month.

The channel is badly in need of some financial muscle to pull along as well as cater to the future needs. ``The television medium is a very capital intensive business with very high technological investments required. For example, the advent of DTH (direct-to-home) transmission would mean an entirely different kind of technology and a higher outlay. We need partners who understand the business and who can put in the resources,'' Dutt said.

The channel has been on the lookout for buyers into the capital for quite some time now, but only now is the outlookpositive, says Dutt.

On the cards is also a complete revamp of the channel. ``So far, we have done very little programming. We would like to get more involved in the programming side and we are considering other possibilities like a change in the kind of programmes we air in different parts of the day.''

The channel has also drawn up a complete five year business plan for the consideration of the potential investors giving the different possibiliites and the channel's growth plan for the future.

So far Vijay has two hours of programming. For starters, the company would like to have at least eight hours of programming per day. The channel would also like to consider relationships with well-known and talented artists in visual media, while retaining control over the kind of programmes it would like to air.

The channel would also have to go aggressive on the marketing front, to push up its ad revenues. And at the same time take care of expanding its viewership.