Got scammed by a television channel. How to deal with it?

I am the co-founder of an ecotourism startup based in India. About 2 months back, we got contacted by a leading lifestyle news channel of India. They wanted to come to the region we operate in and make a travel show. They liked what we were doing and wanted us to help provide them ground support. They asked us to provide the cheapest of price for our services and promised that in return they would feature our company in the show. We agreed! And since it was a big thing for our company, I, as co-founder, personally toured with the channel crew and gave them 8 days of my time. NOTE: For a startup with just 2 members, 8 days is a lot of precious time.

Their trip was quite successful. From our side, everything went well except for the last day when due to the channel crew's routine untimely behavior; making us work late in the nights, one of the driver left and I'd to drive the car. But the crew understood and by the end everything went fine, if not perfect.

Yesterday, they eventually aired the episode in the national television. And guess what, they did not show the part which featured our startup. Moreover, our startup deals with the benefiting the communities and environment. And not showing our passionate endeavor to bring about a positive change is quite a let down. I am quite frustrated as of now. I gave them so much of my precious time, did everything they asked for. In return, they have made a joke out of us. We'd rather be happy if they never contacted us. Least of all, we are not media hungry. Only because they seemed to appreciate our startup when they contacted us initially, we decided to help them in the making of their show.

Now what I ask: How should I deal with this? Is there anyway our startup can get justice for such a ill treatment?

I am extremely furious, angry, disappointed and disgusted with what they have done. With these emotions, I cannot think properly. So will appreciate the opinion of other people.

Thanks.

Btw guys, here's the link to the episode - http://goodtimes.ndtv.com/video/videolist.aspx?vid=266670&CategoryKeyword=&page=1&id=0 They show me (Greener Pastures) for one miser of a minute in the beginning.

Sorry to diffuse your emotions, but as a startup (or any business) Every decision you take will not lead to the promised land. There will be times like these, that will go awry.

It was an opportunity, and you learn from failures equally as you learn from successes. Yes, 8 days is a lot of time, But in the Grand scheme of the years to come, this was a minor blip and a learning opportunity, if you reflect on it, and think thru what went wrong.

I wouldn't necessarily say touring with them is bad, nor they deceiving is good, But that, learn to write decent contracts, Not prescriptive, but get a decent clarity in understanding of mutual responsibilities and roles before a partnership.

If you have nothing on paper defining what it means to be "featured", chalk that one off to experience, shake if off and move forward.

It was a partnership opportunity that didn't yield the results you wanted. This happens all the time. They wanted a travel episode. You wanted a marketing piece. Different expectations. Lots of good content ends up on the cutting floor when time is short. I don't see how this made a joke out of you.

You could document your daily efforts with them in a blog series. You could also call the producer and ask where the "featured" bit that was promised is. Settlement could be increased fees, a short followup piece, a web only behind the scenes video. Or if there is a competing station / show, go to them and say how you got scammed.

All of the above ALSO takes time and effort away from the day to day operations and could yield nothing (except the blog piece).