Zee TV and India TV were a joke before elections. India TV ran 'alien autopsy' as top story before the election campaigns (no kidding). You need to understand the thinking. For a channel that is tied to a political party
this was not a bad move in the past. 10 years ago with no twitter or facebook, you think there would have been any ability to express significant opposition? Absolutely no. Maybe some people may have made a hue and cry but at the end of the day they'd have gotten away with it and spread the fear- if you screw with our party, you will lose your contracts and livelihoods. Today that's not the case, social media really is powerful (as shown by the Net Neutrality debate) and this is a misstep because the @$$hole who took this decision is probably a 60 year old.
One of India TVs alien stories. There was also a story about a monkey living inside a lake.