ITV

Tag: DD National

  • DD Urdu: Over 160 series commissioned; several new series launched this month

    DD Urdu: Over 160 series commissioned; several new series launched this month

    NEW DELHI: A total of around 400-odd serials have been selected for Doordarshan’s Urdu service out of a total of 580 that were pending before the Prasar Bharati Board.

     

    According to DD additional director general Anita Sinha, 165 series out of these have been commissioned.

     

    Thus, after DD National, DD Bharati and DD News, a major revamp of DD Urdu has been undertaken with several new shows being introduced from the beginning of this month. These are new niche shows that cater to their selective audience.

     

    The shows are meant to target all age groups thus igniting the flame of the Urdu language. They include four in-house and four commissioned programmes.

     

    The in-house programmes are:

     

    Yaadein (Memoirs): 8:30 pm.(Saturday), repeat at 2 am and consequent day at 1:05 pm – Famous personalities from all walks of life are invited in the studios to share their memories, experiences and interested anecdotes in this series based on ‘Down the memory lane’ of the personality.

     

    Yaadon Ke Darichay Se: 8 pm (Saturday), repeat at 1:30 am and consequent day at 12:30 pm – Film based programme knitting old and new film songs with an anchor. Each programme is theme based, like rain, love and film personalities.

     

    Mubahisa: 9:30 pm (Monday), repeat at 12:05 am and consequent day at 1:30 pm – Mubahisa is a studio based programme on current affairs and covers social, cultural and political aspects of the nation.

     

    Taleem aur Rozgaar: 9:30 pm (Thursday), repeat at 12:05 am and consequent day at 1:30 pm – The programme is based on education and employment of the youth of our country. Programme highlights the current educational and employment opportunities for the young talents.

     

    The commissioned programmes of 13 episodes are:

     

    Ru-Baru: 9:30 pm (Friday), repeat at 12:05 am and consequent day at 1:30 am – This is an interview based talk show inviting personalities from the field of education, films, music and dance and also personalities of social and cultural eminence. The series is particularly designed for the young generation to understand that devotion and dedication is essential to become successful.

     

    Karwan-e-Aazadi: 8:30 pm (Sunday), repeat at 2 am and consequent day at 1:05 pm – Series on freedom fighters Indian got freedom after sacrificing million of lives of freedom fighters and the contribution of these freedom fighters cannot be forgotten. Indian history and people of India will remember them forever. Some of the renowned freedom fighters covered in the programme are Ram Prasad, Bismil, Ashfaq Ullah Khan, Bhagat Singh, Raja Mahender Pratap Maulana Barkatullah Bhopali and Maulana Ubaidullah Sindhi.

     

    Urdu Adab Ke Legends: 5:30 pm (Tuesday), repeat at 5 am and consequent day at 10:30 am – As the title indicates, the series covers the lives of the Legends of Urdu literature without whose contributions, the history of Urdu literature is incomplete. The legends included in the series are Qurratul Ain Haider, Shaharyar, Ali Sardar Jafri, Khwaja Ahmad Abbas, Akhtarul Iman, Majrooh Sultanpuri, Kaifi Azmi and Sahir Ludhianvi amongst others.

     

    Dastan-e-Urdu: 6:30 pm (Monday), repeat consequent day at 08:05 am and 11:05 am – The series depicts the evolution of the Urdu language from its initial stage ‘Raikhta’ to a language of a common man. Evolution of Urdu took place, step by step and it reached to its zenith when it was spoken in the courts of empires. The series, produced by Kamna Prasad, traces the history of Urdu language with in-depth research and interesting facts.

  • Prasar Bharati: A ‘successful’ year gone by

    Prasar Bharati: A ‘successful’ year gone by

    Since 1995, Doordarshan has been trying to build bridges of communication with Indians living abroad and also to showcase its diverse culture, values and rich heritage to the world by launching its international channel.

    From March 2011, Doordarshan started availing of the service of ISRO’s INSAT-4B in both KU band and C band. However, the inadequacy of not being able to locate any significant global partners to distribute and connect DD to homes overseas continued. Doordarshan did make renewed efforts through Indian Missions to distribute its international channel abroad, but it could make little progress in this last mile distribution, because of several reasons. On the other hand, countries like Japan, Germany, China, Russia and France, invested heavily to ensure a global reach for their international channels.

    Over the last one year, concerted efforts made by Prasar Bharati to locate viable global distribution platform to DD India has resulted in an agreement with Deutsche Welle (DW), the international broadcasting arm of the German public broadcaster for a slot on the DTH platform of EUTEL SAT Hotbird 13 B. It is an extremely popular DTH platform and in Europe it was the logical choice for DD India to launch its overseas services afresh. Hotbird 13B has a total number of 1543 TV channels of which 1117 TV channels are free-to-air. A total of 124 English channels are available on this satellite, prominent amongst which are BBC, CNN, CCTV, RT, France24, VOA TV, Euromans, Sky News, Bloomberg TV, Al Jazeera, etc.  DD India will be in the basic package of the DTH service. The projection of India’s viewpoint to the global audience being  a dire necessity, Prasar Bharati has found a suitable platform with DW on extremely favourable terms on reciprocal basis which is no mean achievement.Placing DD on Hotbird DTH platform will also give it full access to the Middle Eastern GCC countries, where Indians work and reside in large numbers. The telecast trials are likely in a few days and formal launching is expected shortly.

    It was a feather in its cap and moment of honour for India when the Prasar Bharati CEO, Jawhar Sircar, was elected as vice president of the Asia Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU) in 2014 with its presence in 63 countries, boosting its international presence.

    Doordarshan team has come up with new serials in the current year attracting more eye balls in the afternoon session of DD National creating a new record heralding resurgence of the public broadcaster towards fulfilling its mandate with renewed vigour away from market driven commercial initiatives. Meeting the aspirations of the people of Telengana, dedicated DD Yadagiri from Hyderabad and DD Saptagiri channels from Vijayawada for Seemandhra have become fully operational. Other major initiative was upgradation of  four Hindi channels as 24 hours channels as DD Rajasthan, DD Madhya Pradesh, DD Bihar and DD Uttar Pradesh  from the respective capital DD Kendras giving local look and feel enriching  the telecast with regional flavour.  The basic infrastructure to operationalise DD Kisan channel has been put in place by Doordarshan.  Concerted efforts are on to enrich the channel in the coming year meeting the aspirations of all the agro-economic zones with due importance to related fields and provide wholesome content to the agrarian population of the nation.  

    A major decision in 2014 was to optimise the huge advantage of Digital Terrestrial Transmitters from the four metros which are ready and from other important state capitals in cluster with ability to provide a bouquet of 20 attractive TV channels along with a combination of audio channels from each location with perfect digital output reaching the hand held smart devices equipped with tiny dongles or chips which are under field trials already. The technology is capable of live streaming content without buffering and circumventing ‘server down’ possibility fully.

    Doordarshan was in news for amateurish display by some casual assignees  highlighted in media exposed huge vacancies of creative professionals  in Prasar Bharati and absence of a vibrant mechanism to service the HR functions for cadre restructuring, removal of service conditions related anomalies, conduct of regular departmental promotion proceedings, induction and appointment of creative professionals after strict professional evaluation. After Dr Surya Prakash joined as chairman, the proposal for Prasar Bharati Recruitment Board gained impetus and its establishment looks to be on course.

    Prasar Bharati chose to strengthen its popular Vividh Bharati network in the metros by simulcasting in FM mode. While Kolkata has already commenced its operation, other metros are awaiting the launch. AIR’s 86 odd local radio stations across the country have already started simulcasting Vividh Bharati across the nation spicing up AIR’s airwaves in the cause of uniting India.

    Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s monthly Mann ki Baat – a heart-to-heart and intimate sharing of thoughts with the people living in every nook and corner of the country – is a shot in the arm for Prasar Bharati and AIR undoubtedly has emerged a clear winner in reaching the whole nation through all its channels. The programme has received spontaneous response from thousands of listeners spread all over the country including far flung areas. The broadcast has done the vastest disseminated public service through territorial, satellite and web modes.

    While AIR has decided to webcast all primary channels from all its capital Kendras, it has started field trials of its most popular Vividh Bharati as part of its internet bouquet of FM Gold, FM Rainbow and Urdu Service.

    The dream of CEO Jawhar Sircar is to connect the whole of India through FM-station utilising its existing terrestrial towers all over the country for mounting FM antennas and cutting costs and simulcasting its primary service to ride over shortcomings of Medium Wave transmission.

    For Prasar Bharati, creative dynamism has remained a challenge with innumerable competitors in the field. But its new team is optimistic to accomplish its mandate as a national public broadcaster to inform, educate and entertain the masses at home and abroad and achieve conspicuous deliverables in the new year.

    AIR has become the torchbearer of the Prime Minister’s clarion call for ‘Swachh Bharat’ i.e. Clean India mission through its extensive campaign so that it becomes a truly peoples’ movement and the Prime Minister’s dream of clean India by 2019 becomes a reality. To lend support to the mission, AIR launched extensively several programmes on all its channels, in a variety of formats. The objective is to bring about attitudinal changes and behaviour modifications in the way of life of people while making them aware about environmental hygiene and cleanliness.

    Apart from promos, jingles and slogans on the theme, a multi-episode serial in Hindi entitled ‘Des ApnaUjla-Ujla’ has been launched w.e.f. 2 October 2014.

    The yeoman service rendered by All India Radio (Radio Kashmir, Srinagar, Jammu) during the recent devastating deluge, which helped in saving hundreds of lives, connecting families, keeping the morale and spirit high of the population hit by the worst ever natural calamity and prevention of outbreak of epidemics in the aftermath of the disaster, have all come for lavish praise from every quarter including the Chief Minister of J&K and the cabinet secretary to the government of India. AIR’s uninterrupted service during this unprecedented disaster became all the more laudable as all other sources of information like print media and other electronic channels had come to a grinding halt in the State during those trying days.Similarly, AIR’s role in effective disaster management communication during the rescue, relief and rehabilitation operations at the time of recent Hudhud cyclone in the Andhra coast and particularly Vishakhapatnam also won accolades.

    Vividh Bharati, the old faithful, is avidly listened to even today in the face of stiff competition from rival media, especially private FM radio stations. Described as All India variety programme (Akhil Bharatiya Panchrangi Karyakram), it was initially radiated on two high-power shortwave transmitters at Mumbai and Chennai. Later, the service was progressively extended to 37 centres. Today, it is a veritable national service owing to its country-wide reach, with several stations/transmitters carrying the service:-

    • Exclusive/dedicated Vividh Bharati Channels                            37
    • Local Radio Stations (10:00 am to 5:00 pm)                               65
    • 100 Watt FM Relay Centres                                                         82

    Almost all these stations operate on the FM mode. Till recently, in the four metros, the service was available only on the emaciated medium wave transmitters. AIR has recently launched dedicated FM transmitters in the metros as well. Availability of the service on 102 FM transmitters, not to mention the 100 watt FM relay centres, has further enhanced the exposure to Vividh Bharati, owing to proliferation of FM receivers, car radios and mobile devices. To begin with, Vividh Bharati was an urban phenomenon. Today, it is able to penetrate deep into the country side and is an ideal vehicle for those eager to capture the rural markets.

    The fact that Vividh Bharati simultaneously reaches a vast section of people of all hues creates a psychological bond of togetherness, building up cohesion and common values.

    The year 2014 is the 75th anniversary year of external broadcasting in India and the 50th anniversary of its Urdu service. The External Services Division (ESD) is truly the extended arm of foreign policy and public diplomacy. The traditional modes of shortwave and medium wave transmission have been largely replaced during the year by FM and internet radio bringing about a turnaround during the year. The highlights of the revamping of the ESD are:

    1. Enhancing the level of engagement with the MEA particularly the External Publicity/ Public Diplomacy Division on an urgent basis, MEA will carry details of important programmes scheduled for broadcast in the General Overseas Service (GOS), the flagship service of ESD in English as well as other services in their bi-monthly magazine ‘India Perspective’.

    2. Modernisation efforts of ESD like creation and maintenance of multi-media websites with live internet radio and Radio on Demand components. Trial runs for the websites have been completed and GOS has already been informally hosted and ready for launch.

    3. ESD has also created three round-the-clock web radio portals, featuring live streaming of all the services. These have also been tested and ready for formal launch.

    4. With a view to reaching out to the Indian diaspora and involving the PIOs in the development agenda of the nation and making them true brand ambassadors for the country, multi-media websites for the Indian language services of ESD like Hindi, Bangla, Gujarati, Tamil and Urdu are being developed, with content specifically designed to the respective  target areas.

    5. General Overseas Service is targeted to the English speaking listeners all over the world with the exception of USA, Canada, South-America and the Caribbean. To reach these uncovered areas, a dedicated multi-media website ‘airworldservice.org.in’ has been launched during the year. The programmes of GOS are also available on the web radio portal of ESD. A GOS programme on Gandhian Philosophy has recently won the best programme award for the year 2014.

    6. To augment reception quality of cross-border and neighbourhood services targeted to South-East Asia and some countries in the East Asia from Chinsura (West Bengal) and to Pakistan, Afghanistan and some CIS countries from Rajkot, transmitters were upgraded. This will go a long way to support the new initiatives of the Central Government to strengthen its relations and engagement with the countries in the neighborhood and also undertake counter-propaganda and perception management programmes in a more effective manner. 

    • The News Services Division (NSD) of All India Radio is one of the world’s largest news gathering and dissemination apparatus.
    • Harnessing mobile technology, NSD launched free AIR news SMS service to the public in several regional languages viz. Asamese, Dogri, Gujarati, Hindi, Malayalam, Marathi, Nepali, Sanskrit and Tamil, besides English. The number of people registered for the Service has crossed 5 lakhs, with nearly 80% opting for the regional languages.
    • Substantially increased its presence on the social media, reaching out audiences far and wide. Popularity of AIR’s Facebook page can be gauged by the fact that the number of likes increased from 7 lakh in May, 2014 to 17 lakh in November, 2014. 
    • Twitter handle @airnewsalerts is also gaining momentum day by day, from 2,15,000 followers in May, 2014 to 3,70,000 in November, 2014
      • To further strengthen its reach, NSD joined another online audio platform sound cloud in May 2014. Sound cloud is an audio platform which is used in over 200 countries and has a global reach of 317 million per month. Within short span of time, it has become popular and has nearly 5.4 lakh plays so far, with an average of around 20,000 plays and 800 downloads per week.
    • To lend support to the Mann Ki Baat programme, NSD has been carrying content of  the PM’s speech in all bulletins, national as well as regional, the later carrying the regional language version. SMSes, based on the content, are sent in several languages to the people who had registered for the service. A special static home page was created on www.newsonair.nic.in with a link to take people directly to live webcast page of ‘Mann Ki Baat”.  A special window was created for the webcast of the speech, uploading the text of the address on the website. PM’s speech was live tweeted both in Hindi and English simultaneously. What is more, it was posted on Sound Cloud, generating unique plays within a short span of time reflecting its appeal
    • A variety of CDs based on the prized possessions in the treasure trove of AIR’s archives was prepared, released and uploaded on AIR’s Youtube. Significant among these CDs are the audio cuts of Mahatma Gandhi, Bharat Ratna and former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Marian Anderson and Dr. Martin Luther King (Jr.).
    • CDs based on recordings of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel are ready, with refurbishing in its final stage.
    • CD containing recordings on various subjects by Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, Pt. Jawahar Lal Nehru, Dr. Rajendra Prasad, Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, Lal Bahadur Shastri, Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan is being prepared. Refurbishing of these recordings is in final stage.
    • 300 hours (approx.) fresh recording received from AIR stations have been digitized with detailed metadata. 3000 hours (approx.) of archival recordings have been deep archived with detailed metadata in Storage Area Network (SAN).
    • AIR has a humongous network of 590 transmitters serving 414 stations, covering virtually the entire population of the country.
    • Under an ambitious digitalisation programme, 31 old medium wave transmitters and five shortwave transmitters have been replaced by new DRM transmitters.
    • Archival facility was setup at Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Mumbai, facilitating digitalization and restoration work
    • Under the Special Package for J&K and North-East, several new FM transmitters are being installed.
    • Modernization and automation of existing Regional News Units.
    • The dream of Prasar Bharati to connect whole of India through FM-isation, utilising its existing terrestrial towers all over the country for mounting  FM antenna cutting costs and simulcasting its primary service to ride over shortcomings of  medium wave transmission, especially the dwindling number medium wave receivers, is fast becoming a reality through a phased progamme launched by AIR.
    • While AIR has decided to webcast all its primary channels from all its capital sations, it has started live streaming, on a trial basis, to take field trial of its most popular Vividh Bharati service as part of its internet bouquet of FM Gold, FM Rainbow and Urdu Service.  This has helped in taking the service to listeners overseas, especially the Indian diaspora, clamouring for it.

     

    (These are purely personal views of Prasar Bharati principal adviser Brigadier (Retd) VAM Hussain and indiantelevision.com does not necessarily subscribe to these views.)

  • Doordarshan launches slew of women-centric soaps as part of DD National revamp

    Doordarshan launches slew of women-centric soaps as part of DD National revamp

    NEW DELHI: Doordarshan director general Vijaylaxmi Chhabra has announced that steps are being taken to launch DD Kisan soon and to revamp the public service broadcaster’s international channel DD India.
     
    Chhabra also highlighted other steps to revamp DD National, which now carries the tagline ‘Desh Ka Apna Channel.’
     
    She said the main aim was to streamline DD National which is the primary channel of Prasar Bharati and has already adorned new colours of purple and pink with a fresh palette of programming. While getting set for competition with general entertainment channels, she stressed the channel will continue to focus on traditional family values – ‘Rishtey’, ‘Nation before Self’, ‘Rashtra Gaurav’ and ‘Trustworthiness – Dilon Mein Vishwas’.

    When asked about the marketing plan for the revamp, she said DD was not averse to advertising on private news channels but had not yet commenced any commercials outside the DD network, newspaper campaigns and the social media.
     
    Chhabra also said that programmes from the archives would be confined to DD Bharati.
     
    She was speaking at a press meet which was addressed by representatives of all the new serials on DD, apart from additional director-general Deepa Chandra and V K Jain.
     
    Interestingly, as reported first by indiantelevision.com, majority of the programmes are women-centric or women-oriented.
     
    While eight programmes were launched in November, one is being launched this month and another next month – all at prime time.
     
    One of the programmes commencing later this month is a talk show ‘Stri Shakti’ which will be aired on weekends on Saturday and Sunday and will revolve around women who have faced certain hardships and have come through successfully. Each show will also have a celebrity presence.
     
    After ‘Fauji’ which launched Shah Rukh Khan, DD is telecasting an army-based show ‘Paltan’ commencing next month which will attempt to show the lives of the army officers even during peace time when they are called out to tackle internal emergencies such as floods etc. Producer Vijay Gopal said all the people he had approached for the show had been more than willing to come on board, and singer Shaan had rendered the title track.
     
    ‘Happy Homes – Khatte-Meethe Jeevan Ke Rang’ has been produced by Arun Govil (who acted as Ram in Ramayana) at 7.00 pm and is a light comedy of unity in diversity where people speaking different languages and from different regions live together in a colony. Govil said he is not playing any role in the series.
     
    This is followed at 7:30 pm by ‘Khwabon ke darmiyan – Sach Aur Sapno Se Jhoojhti Zindagi’ produced and directed by Kailash Tuli and starring Kapil Soni in a stellar role highlighting the struggle to bridge the gap between dreams and reality for women in the fast-changing social context.
     
    ‘Khamosh Sa Afsana – Jidd Aur Armano Ka Fasana’ at 8:00 pm by Ritu Chauhan has a fine cast of talented stalwarts like Tom Alter, Roopa Ganguly, and M K Raina who are the central characters in a story depicting the struggle of a daughter fighting to balance her work and managing her speech and hearing impaired parents.
     
    ‘Zindagi Ek Bhanwar – Rajneeti Me Mahila Ka Raaj’ produced by actor Tej Sapru (son of the late veteran actor Sapru) at 9.00 pm is a political drama which aims at reaching out to the aspirations of society and desiring changes in quality of life, followed at 9:30 pm by ‘Dard Ka Rishta – Badalte Sambandhon Ki Kahani’ produced and directed by Vinod Kapoor. The story revolves around disregard of the senior citizens in today’s urbanized societies. Sushma Seth will make a comeback on DD National after almost 30 years with this show. Sapru said that the question he has raised is why four sons cannot support a woman in her old age when she supported them when they were young.
     
    ‘Jab Jab Bahar Ayee – Janmon Ka Bandhan Ya Bandhish’ by Dolly Sohi at 10.00 pm is a serial which touches upon a dilemma of husband and wife trying to keep their family together and finding happiness not withstanding their personal differences.
     
    DD National is also building its weekend prime-time with two shows ‘Janmon Ka Bandhan – Insaani Rishton Ka Tana Bana’ produced by Sadhika Randhawa and directed by Prem Chopra which will air from Friday to Sunday at 7.00 pm. Randhawa said it is the story of the family of an honest Indian Administrative Service officer and shows various issues including the fight against corruption.
    ‘Prakriti – Kudrat Ko Bachane Ki Jung’ by the veteran actor filmmaker Parikshit Sahni tracks the story of an ideal woman forest officer who endeavours to save nature. It is set against the backdrop of scenic Jim Corbett Park. It is being aired every Saturday and Sunday at 8:30 pm. Sahni said he had taken the story under the banner of his father Balraj Sahni Films and would show the daughter of a forest officer not only taking up a profession not considered suitable for women but getting posted in an area that was not very women-friendly.

     

  • DD National gains big in week 45 of TAM ratings

    DD National gains big in week 45 of TAM ratings

    NEW DELHI: Doordarshan National – ‘Desh ka apna Channel’, showed its biggest gain of 67 TVM in the week-45 ending on 8 November, according to the latest report of TAM.

     
    While the other major GECs have shed weight in terms of their viewership, Doordarshan National seems to be gaining ground propelled by its massive campaign of channel relaunch.

     
    According to TAM data, DD National garnered a viewership of 218 million signifying a bumper 40 per cent increase compared to week-44, with more than 90 per cent of increase coming from Cable and satellite homes.

     
    The viewership of mid-prime time slot also seems to be rising steadily with an increase of about 12 per cent. Among the programmes in this slot, ‘Anudamini’ showed maximum gain in terms of viewership by 17 per cent, followed by ‘Amrita’ with 15 per cent gain.

     
    Some of the other top programmes which have shown a rise in TVM are ‘Bharat ki Shaan – Let’s Dance’, ‘Pavitra Bandhan’, the film song programme ‘Rangoli’, ‘Samman ek Adhikar’, ‘Vande Matram’ and ‘Sohni Mahiwal’.

     
    With a slew of new programmes in the prime-time slot starting today and a brand new look, Doordarshan National will look to gain higher on TAM charts in the coming weeks.

     

  • DD National to telecast a special programme on ‘World Toilet Day’

    DD National to telecast a special programme on ‘World Toilet Day’

    NEW DELHI: Doordarshan is to telecast a special programme on ‘The World Toilet Day’ tomorrow keeping in view the ‘Swachh Bharat Campaign’ launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 2 October. 

     
    The prime channel of public broadcaster, DD National is set to telecast the programme on ‘World Toilet Day’ titled ‘Bal Safai Abhiyan’ from 10.00 a.m. for half an hour.

     
    The Doordarshan Kendras across the country has been asked to ensure that the activities of Swachha Bharat-World Toilet Day on 19 November are being covered at National/Capital and at Gram Panchayat Level.

     Meanwhile, even as the UN Information Centre for India and Bhutan issued a poster that calls for the cultural integration of Toilet as a national aspiration in India, renowned contemporary painter Paresh Maity and the well-known classical dancer Geeta Chandran are launching the UN National Campaign in this regard.

     
    The UN today called on religious, education and opinion leaders in developing regions to join government officials and champion a halt to open defecation, a practice of 1 billion people worldwide — one-sixth of the developing world’s 5.9 billion inhabitants.

     

  • DD National to relaunch next week with new look and shows

    DD National to relaunch next week with new look and shows

    NEW DELHI: With a new slogan of ‘Desh Ka Apna Channel’, Doordarshan National which is the primary channel of Prasar Bharati is adorning new colours of purple and pink with a fresh palette of programming from 17 November.

     

    The channel will continue to focus on traditional family values – ‘Rishtey’, ‘Nation before Self’, ‘Rashtra Gaurav’ and ‘Trustworthiness – Dilon Mein Vishwas’.

     

    In an exclusive interview to indiantelevision.com, DD director general Vijayalaxmi Chhabra said that the channel had also adopted competitive procurement guidelines which were attracting major producers towards the pubcaster.

     

    She said while DD National had stopped commissioning programmes, it was directly marketing serials to get sponsors for its programmes.

     

    The new look of DD National will be unveiled from 17 November, she said, adding that the vibrancy of the channel would be reviewed from time to time.  

     

    She said: “In keeping with our vision for providing wholesome entertainment to audiences across the length and breadth of the country with a public service responsibility, Doordarshan National will be coming with a new look and feel and eight new shows in prime time.”

     

    ‘Happy Homes – Khatte-meethe jeevan ke rang’ will start from 17 November at 7.00 pm and is a light comedy of unity in diversity where people speaking different languages and from different regions live together in a colony.

     

    This will be followed at 7:30 pm by ‘Khwabon ke darmiyan – Sach aur sapno se jhoojhti zindagi’, to highlight the struggle to bridge the gap between dreams and reality for women in the fast-changing social context.

     

    After that, ‘Khamosh sa afsana – Jidd aur armano ka fasana’ at 8:00 pm has a fine cast of talented stalwarts like Tom Alter, Roopa Ganguly, and M K Raina who are the central characters in a story depicting the struggle of a daughter fighting to balance her work and managing her disabled parents.

     

    ‘Zindagi ek Bhanwar – Rajneeti me mahila ka raaj’ at 9.00 pm is a political drama which aims at reaching out to the aspirations of society and desiring changes in quality of life, followed at 9:30 pm by ‘Dard Ka Rishta – Badalte Sambandhon ki kahani’. The story revolves around disregard of the senior citizens in today’s urbanized societies. Sushma Seth will make a comeback on DD National after almost 30 years with this show.

     

    ‘Jab Jab Bahar Ayee – Janmon ka bandhan ya bandhish’ at 10.00 pm is a serial which touches upon a dilemma of husband and wife trying to keep their family together and finding happiness not withstanding their personal differences.

     

    Chhabra said DD National is also building its weekend prime-time with two shows ‘Janmon ka Bandhan’ and ‘Prakriti’.  ‘Janmon ka Bandhan – Insaani rishton ka tana bana’ starting 21 November will air from Friday to Sunday at 7.00 pm and is a women-centric family drama.  

     

    ‘Prakriti – Kudrat ko bachane ki jung’ tracks the story of an ideal forest officer who endeavours to save nature. It is set against the backdrop of scenic Jim Corbett Park. It will air from 22 November, every Saturday and Sunday at 8:30 pm, she said.

  • “Jazba Hai To Mumkin Hai” on radio to complement Aamir Khan’s Satyamev Jayate on TV

    “Jazba Hai To Mumkin Hai” on radio to complement Aamir Khan’s Satyamev Jayate on TV

    NEW DELHI: All India Radio is to broadcast “Jazba Hai To Mumkin Hai”, a feedback interactive programme with Aamir Khan from 11 October based on the episodes of Satyamev Jayate.

     

    The programme will be broadcast on AIR’s FM Network, Vividh Bharati’s National Network and identified 94 primary channels/local radio stations from 11 October to 15 November on every Saturday. Thus there are six programmes that will be aired at different timings on various channels of All India Radio.

     

    FM Gold Network – 1000 Hrs to 1100 Hrs;FM Rainbow Network – 1800 Hrs to 1900 Hrs; Identified PC/LRS – 1100 Hrs to 1200 Hrs and Vividh Bharati National Network – 1530 Hrs to 1630 Hrs. The calls from the listeners of AIR will be received on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Listeners can call up and share their experience from 11.00 am to 4.00 pm on these days.

     

    To encourage participation, a feedback interactive programme with Aamir Khan is broadcast every season.

     

    Earlier take on these radio programmes: “Dil Pe Lagi Aur Baat Bani” and “Awaaz Unki Jinhe Fiqr Hai Desh Ki” with Aamir Khan over All India Radio had proved immensely successful.

     

    Following the trend, this year’s programme “Jazba Hai to Mumkin Hai” will also complement Satyamev Jayate – III in taking forward Khan’s idea of India to the masses and the fact that everything is possible if we have a collective will to bring about change.

     

    An AIR official told indiantelevision.com, “In the last season, Aamir Khan was astonished when he realised that there were calls from the interiors of India to the far flung North East as well as Jammu and Kashmir and South India. The actor was full of appreciation for the responses received via All India Radio.”

     

    Satyamev Jayate – Season III featuring Aamir Khan went on air from yesterday on Star Plus with a simulcast by DD National for wider coverage of the programme which holds talks and discussions on various burning issues concerning Indian society at large.

     

    Star Plus also launched the programme ‘Mumkin hai‘, immediately after the telecast of Satyamev Jayate, where presenter Debang spoke live about the subject of the day – sportspersons and the need to inculcate sports from a young age – with Kapil Dev, Yuvraj Singh, and an invited audience from Chandigarh. It is learnt that this programme will travel to different cities every week and will be telecast live immediately after Satyamev Jayate.

     

    The show launched its earlier seasons with the basic idea to bring about change by creating awareness about socially relevant issues.

     

    After being widely appreciated as a TV show, AIR and Satyamev Jayate team decided to connect with millions of radio listeners through interactive feedback programmes. After each telecast, feedback is received from the listeners/viewers across the country through phone calls which are recorded and played back to Khan who in turn gives response to the listeners’ reactions.

     

    Thus these programmes conceived as talk shows for All India Radio are an extension of Satyamev Jayate. Aimed at stringing together real-life incidents touching a common chord across people of the country, these programmes could reach poorest of poor and remotest of remote parts of the country.

  • ‘Mann Ki Baat’ back on DD on public demand

    ‘Mann Ki Baat’ back on DD on public demand

    NEW DELHI: Mann Ki Baat, Doordarshan’s television series on mental health issues presented by psychiatrists Avdhesh Sharma and Sujatha Sharma, will be back on public demand, 17 June onwards.

     

    The series – which has earlier been telecast on DD National, DD Bharati and DD India – will now be aired every Tuesday and Wednesday at 8:30 a.m. on DD 1. 

     

    Issues related to mental health, psychosocial issues, stress related problems, emotional and behavioral disorders in the various age groups as well as issues related to positive mental health and well-being will be the focus of the series, comprising 78 episodes.  Each episode focuses on a specific topic with emphasis on understanding and seeking solutions for the problem concerned.

     

    It has been found that about 25 per cent of the Indian population suffers from psychological distress/illness in their lifetime while countless others have sub clinical problems. It has also been found that humans do not use even 5 per cent of their potential powers of the mind, which can always be improved. Caring for the mind is a major responsibility and it is crucial and important to recognise early signs of psychological distress and address them immediately through self-help or seeking outside help so that it does not become a mental illness.

     

    Mann Ki Baat was born out of the need to create a platform for awareness on mental health issues – both the ordinary ones that affect our daily lives and the not so ordinary issues like mental illnesses that may not directly affect us but someone we know or care for. 

     

    The series focuses on issues related to the mind and mental health of individuals and the society at large. The program is essentially a studio based discussion between the anchor and the experts in the field with inputs in the form of comments from general public, case studies as well as experts from different related professions. 

     

    The content for the series has been developed by Sujatha D. Sharma, a clinical psychologist with over 25 years of experience who has also scripted several other television documentaries on mental health in the past. Avdhesh Sharma, a well known psychiatrist is the director and expert anchor of the series. Avdhesh has anchored and directed numerous health programs for the electronic media for over 30 years. Kanupriya, a well known media personality for nearly two decades, is the anchor of the present series.

     

    The series deals with psychosocial issues spanning all ages, from mental stress in children and adolescents to marital problems of the elderly.  It also deals with common psychological problems like depression, anxiety, suicide, sleep and eating disorders, alcohol abuse, myths and stigma about mental illness etc.  There is a focus on self growth such as enhancing emotional intelligence, positive emotions and controlling negative ones.

  • Week 21: Music channels sees a rise

    Week 21: Music channels sees a rise

    MUMBAI: As per Chrome Data Analytics & Media’s opportunity to see (OTS) data, music channels were the highest gainers for the week 21. The genre witnessed a growth of 1.2 per cent in the HSM markets.

     

    In this category, Sony Mix stood at number one position with 88.8 per cent OTS followed by MTV 87.7 per cent OTS, 9XM 82.8 per cent OTS, B4U Music 71.2 per cent OTS and 9X Jalwa 70.8 per cent OTS.

     

    Hindi GECs, this week saw a growth of 0.6 per cent with Star Plus at 96.8 per cent OTS followed by DD National 96.6 per cent OTS, Zee TV 96.4 per cent OTS, Life OK 96.0 per cent OTS and Sony Entertainment also 96.0 per cent OTS at the HSM markets.

     

    With a minor difference, Business News channels in the eight metros saw a gain of 0.4 per cent. Zee Business topped the genre with 80.2 per cent OTS followed by CNBC Awaaz 76.2 per cent OTS, ET Now 69.1 per cent OTS, CNBC TV18 64.3 per cent OTS and NDTV Profit 62.5 per cent OTS.

     

    Lastly, English movies channels gained 0.2 per cent with Movies Now scoring 76.2 per cent OTS followed by PIX 76.0 per cent OTS, Star Movies 68.6 per cent OTS, Zee Studio 64.9 per cent OTS and HBO 63.8 per cent OTS.

     

    As for the genres which saw a drop are Sports channels (All India), Hindi News channels (HSM), Kids (All India) and Hindi Movies (HSM).

  • Chrome Data: Religious genre gain the most

    Chrome Data: Religious genre gain the most

    MUMBAI: Chrome Data Analytics & Media has released the opportunity to see (OTS) data for week 19. As per the report, the highest gainer for the week was Religious channels in the Hindi speaking markets (HSM).

     

    Aastha channel continued its reign on the genre with 97.9 OTS while the genre overall jumped 0.6 per cent.

     

    English News channels in the eight metros came in second with a minute difference of 0.1 per cent, taking its reach up by 0.5 per cent. Times Now, once again, topped with 88.5 per cent OTS.

     

    Next came in Hindi News channels in the HSM with 0.3 per cent rise. ABP News with 93.9 per cent OTS was the topper in the genre.

     

    Hindi GECs saw a minor rise of 0.1 per cent in the HSM with DD National on top with 97.6 per cent OTS.

     

    As for the bottom four genres, Sports across India fell 0.5 per cent. Ten Sports scored the most with 77.6 OTS.

     

    English Entertainment channels and English Movie channels in the eight metros fell 0.4 per cent and 0.3 per cent, respectively. AXN with 72.5 per cent and Pix with 76.3 per cent OTS topped their respective genres.

     

    Music in the HSM saw a drop of 0.2 per cent with Mix topping the charts with 88.7 per cent OTS.