ITV

Tag: Doordarshan

  • DD Kashir channel packaging bids invited by 29 June

    NEW DELHI: Doordarshan has invited applications for an agency to undertake the channel packaging work for its channel, DD Kashir. The last date for filing e-tenders is 29 June (3pm). The technical bids will be opened on 30 June 2017 at 3.30 pm. The date of presentation and the date of opening of the financial bids will be announced later. Online registration will be done on e-tendering websites.

    Doordarshan had invited similar tenders in April. However, following suggestions, it has issued notice for a new tender in which it has made changes, primarily relating to the modes of payment.

    DD Kashir is a 24×7 satellite Channel of Doordarshan. The channel was launched in the year 2003. It is planned to bring fresh content on DD Kashir to showcase richness, variety and diversity of the local culture. The channel’s USP will be to attract young people of Jammu & Kashmir.

    For those wishing to file tenders, it is necessary to register with a valid ID and password. Activation of registration may take 24 hours or more subject to the submission of all relevant documents required in the process, Doordarshan said. The bids will be opened in the Prasar Bharati office in Delhi.

    The tender document is available for Rs 5,000 (non-refundable) and there will be a processing fee of Rs 25,000 (non-refundable). The earnest money deposit (EMD) is Rs 600,000. The EMD of the unsuccessful bidders will be returned after 90 days of award of contract and that of successful bidders will be returned after acceptance of work order and submission of Performance Bank Guarantee.

    Meanwhile, the reference for proposal and details thereof are available on the pubcaster’s website as well as e-tendering websites.

    Earlier this month, Doordarshan invited proposals for telecast of programmes under the Commissioning category in 11 different categories for DD Kashir. All proposals have to be submitted by 27 June 2017. Although producers can submit more than one proposal, each proposal will be accompanied with a non-refundable processing fee of 25,000 in a bank draft.

    A show reel of the work done earlier by the producer up to 10 minutes will be mandatory for consideration of any proposal. According to an announcement on the Doordarshan website, Prasar Bharati is making special efforts in Jammu and Kashmir to promote and nurture talent, provide a platform to deserving producers/artists from Jammu & Kashmir as well as from outside to encourage production of better programmes for Doordarshan viewers.

  • Doordarshan slots Rafi, Kishore & Lata tribute show from Sat

    NEW DELHI: Just over six months since Doordarshan declared the results of the prime time auctions for DD National in December, the first of these programmes is finally all set to go on air. Commencing on 24 June, the unique music reality show ‘Suron ka Eklavya’ will be telecast every Saturday and Sunday from 8 pm to 9 pm.

    The show has been produced by the multifaceted media company Saaibaba Telefilms which had won slots, as did Balaji Telefilms.

    While Balaji won four slots, Saai Baba Telefilms bagged two. Saai won the bids for 7.30 pm to 8 pm from Monday to Friday, and 8 pm to 9 pm on Saturday and Sunday. As the RFP (request for proposal) document had made it clear that no party could bid for more than three slots in a week, DD sources told indiantelevision.com that Balaji had to surrender one of the slots it won in the bid.

    ‘Suron ka Eklavya’ will mark a tribute to the three pillars of playback singing – the legendary — Mohammed Rafi, Kishore Kumar, and Lata Mangeshkar with gharanas named after them.

    The concept of the show is to present the gems of Bollywood music from the golden period of Hindi music with fresh voices retaining the signature style of the legends. The weekly show will feature the best of the industry and will engage the audience with spell bound music, anecdotes, interaction with judges and much more.

    The show has a mixed bag of young talent, veterans from the fraternity, and stunning sets making it visually appealing. The contestants will be groomed and nurtured for their future music careers by celebrity mentors.

    While there are many music reality shows, Suron ka Ekalavya is expected to stand out with its innovative and unique format, details of which will be revealed soon. Link for the trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWZ8lnQZbJg

    In the auctions held and for which results were announced in the second week of December last, no bids were received for three slots: 10 pm to 10.30 pm and 10.30 to 11 pm from Monday to Thursday and the 7pm to 8 pm slot on Sunday.

    After two failures at auctions in 2016, Doordarshan had after a Prasar Bharati Board meeting in October last announced a series of concessions once the programmers come on board, including lowering base price for a 30-minute slot to Rs. 150,000.

    Earlier this slot had been fixed at Rs 250.000 when the auction was first announced in June last year and was further decreased to Rs 200,000 when the new date was set for a second auction in early September 2016.

    Producers/production houses that have produced at least 200 hours of general entertainment programming, including feature film productions in any Indian language in the last three years, and have a turnover of minimum Rs 30 million per annum in the field of TV and film production in the last three financial years are eligible to apply.

    Applicants for weekend slots in the genres of reality, game and quiz were required to have produced 100 hours of such content in the last three years. However, DD sources said that certain changes had been made for successful bidders to promote their programmes.

    Successful bidders will now also be allowed to approach and obtain advertisements from public service undertaking for their programmes on Doordarshan, which was not permitted earlier. Doordarshan has also laid down a compulsory number of promotional commercials, which will be free, on various channels of Doordarshan network.

    In addition, successful bidders will be allowed to ‘bank’ their free commercial time. That is, in case a successful bidder has not exhausted the number of promotional commercials (totalling 240 seconds) permitted before the telecast of a particular programme, the balance can be used as and when the programme picks up in popularity.

    The exit option has also been relaxed: in case a producer decides to opt out of the scheme, he will need to give only 45 days notice instead of three months. The lock-in period for this has also been reduced from one year to six months.

  • Doordarshan D-G Supriya Sahu says studying tie-ups & models as kids channel launch nearing

    NEW DELHI: Doordarshan is actively working on an exclusive channel for entertainment for the young ones, and is currently preparing a detailed note in this connection.

    Doordarshan director-general Supriya Sahu said the pubcaster had earlier in the year sent a concept note to the Information and Broadcasting Ministry which had now asked it to work out details.

    Consequently, Sahu told indiantelevision.com that the pubcaster was presently studying possible partnerships and various models, apart from studying the availability of content. She said that she was confident that this would “materialise soon”.

    Sahu also pointed out that the direct-to-home platform of Doordarshan, FreeDish, had all kinds of programming but nothing for the kids. It was therefore considered important to launch such a channel.

    In fact, she said the issue had also been discussed at FICCI Frames in March this year. It was pointed out that kids’ channels in India were roughly about three per cent of the total number of channels with limited Indian content. Programming for children for television is a responsible job; sensible children’s programming has the objective of making youngsters imbibe a sense of responsibility and morality.

    To strengthen the kids’ content industry and bring about sustainability, stability and growth to the artist community and other stakeholders in the industry, there was consensus that India needs a Free-to-Air Terrestrial Kids Channel. There was general agreement that, since Doordarshan is the only channel to have such a wide reach, it is the only capable broadcast channel to make kids content available on a wide scale nationally.

    Sahu had given the example of a Doordarshan team which travelled extensively to villages to talk to people. Almost every house had a connection of FreeDish except for one. Sahu was told by the elders in the house that this was because there was no channel for kids. “So, it makes not only a good business sense for DD to launch a kids channel but also important from the Indian context,” Sahu had said.

    She had said that at DD, they were working hard to create a dedicated Content Think Tank of experienced personalities to rope in the best content and mentor progression. Earlier in 2015, the wishlist of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry included a plea to the pubcaster to launch DD Kids.

  • FreeDish: English news channel among two come aboard (Updated)

    NEW DELHI: Two more television channels, including the first English news channel, have come on board Doordarshan’s FreeDish platform. Though there were no bidders for the e-auction on 25 May 2017, the two channels were brought on board on a pro rata basis.

    Additional director-general Sunil told Indiantelevision.com that RT Movies and NewsX –  which is an English news channel – have been taken on a special pro rata basis till the next auction, which is expected in July.

    Explaining the concept of pro rata, he said these channels are paying at a daily rate basis calculated against the reserve price of Rs 80 million for the period when they came on air till the next auction. This works out to Rs 2,19,178 per day.

    However, they will have to taken part in the auction to remain on the platform under conditions set by Doordarshan.  

    Sunil also said that FreeDish was expected to take a quantum jump from the present eighty TV channels (apart from 32 radio cbannels) to 104 TV channels with the completion of the final trials of MPEG4, about which an announcement had been made in October last year.

    On a question about FreeDish becoming capable of 250 channels within the next two years as announced by the Information and Broadcastng Ministry in Parliament in early April, Sunil said this was expected to be achieved by the third quarter of 2018.

    In line with the ‘Digital India’ and ‘Make in India’, DD has implemented Indian CAS (iCAS) on DD FreeDish Platform. iCAS (which is an initiative of the central government) was introduced in the auction held last month. The introduction of iCAS will provide enhanced viewing experience.

    Although Free Dish will remain free-to-air with no monthly or periodic fee with encryption, the viewers will be required to register with DD FreeDish on getting the new STB from DD authorized STB dealers.

    DD officials said implementation of iCAS and authorisation of STB original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) by Doordarshan will give a major thrust to ‘Make in India’ and ‘Digital India’. At present, a majority of STBs are imported. However, the introduction of iCAS will help in standardisation of STBs and encourage quality STB manufacturing in India.

    With analogue having been switched off, Parliament had been told that many stakeholders feel that FreeDish is the best option in Phase IV which covers rural India.

    The only free-to-air DTH platform in the country, FreeDish earned Rs 2.8665 billion through auction of 54 slots in six auctions from 30 March 2016 to 14 February 2017. In comparison, DD had earned Rs 1.8034 billion in 2015-16.

    Despite the reserve price of Rs 48 million till the 32nd auction, the highest bid for a slot was Rs 73 million for Sony Pal. The reserve price in the first five auctions was Rs 43 million and was raised to Rs 48 million in the 32nd auction. The reserve price for the 33rd auction was Rs 80 million.

    FreeDish was launched with a modest bouquet of 33 channels in December 2004, and now carries eighty TV channels and 32 radio channels. This includes 22 Doordarshan channels and two parliamentary channels, seven general entertainment channels, 18 movie channels, 13 news channels, seven music channels, three religious channels and eight channels of other genres. The All-India Radio stations also piggy-back on the platform.

    Also Read :

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    FreeDish aims to reach 150 channels, earned Rs 3 bn in a year

    FreeDish’s May auction a damp squib with no bidder in sight

  • Doordarshan invites by month-end EoIs for 2,754 English & regional films per yr

    NEW DELHI: Doordarshan seems to be girding up its loins, especially after the appointment of the Prasar Bharati CEO — Shashi S Vempati. Expressions of interest (EoIs) have been invited by Doordarshan for companies/rights holders for supplying a total of 2,754 feature films per year in English and various Indian languages for its channels.

    According to the notice by the pubcaster, the rights holder which should be a company or a partnership firm must have a minimum of three years of experience in providing feature films to a television broadcaster and a minimum of 25 films in its possession.

    The right-holders are required to provide feature films to Doordarshan for a period of two years and this period is extendable for one more year. The last date for submission of entries is 30 June 2017 by 2 pm.

    Doordarshan at present has seven channels that are uplinked from New Delhi – DD National, DD News, DD Bharati, DD India, DD Urdu, DD Sports and DD Kisan.

    Besides these, Doordarshan also operates 14 (24X7) regional language channels. Regional language Channels are area/region specific and due to diversity of language and culture, each Channels is unique in terms of content and viewership.

    Films are being telecast on the entire network of Doordarshan – on Channels uplinked from New Delhi (DD National, DD Bharati, DD India, DD Urdu, and DD Kisan Channels). English and Hindi feature film slots have also been created in the soon to be launched DD Arun Prabha Channel. Additionally, regional language feature films are also telecast on all its regional language Channels.

    The applicant should not be a defaulter of Doordarshan at the time of submission of the Eol. A black-listing order passed by the Central government I State governments I any PSU should not be in operation against the applicant at the time of submission of the EoI. The right holder should not be debarred from bidding as per GFR, Rule 151.
     
    Tentative requirement of feature films would be according to the table below but iIt may change marginally depending upon the requirement.

    SrNo.
    Name     of      the
    Channel
    Language
    Tentative
    Number of films required (per year)
    1
    DD National
    Hindi
    200
    2
    DD Bharati
    Hindi
    60
    3
    DD Ind ia
    Hindi
    60
    4
    DD Urdu
    Hindi &
    Urdu
    160
    5
    DD Kisan
    Hindi
    100
    6
    DD Arunprabha
    (upcoming)
    English &
    Hindi
    104
    (52 Eng. &
    52 Hin.)
    7
    DD Bangla
    Bangla
    360
    8
    DD Bihar
    Bhojpuri &
    Maithali
    100
    9
    DD Chandana
    Kannada
    250
    10
    DD Gimar
    Gujarati
    60
    11
    DD Kashir
    Urdu&
    Hindi
    100
    12
    DD Malayalam
    Malaya!am
    100
    13
    DD North East
    (including
    Assamese)
    English,
    Hindi, regional languages
    of the north-
    eastern region
    100
    14
    DD Odia

  • Sahu to lead resources & distribution-hit Doordarshan news channels’ repositioning

    MUMBAI: DD India, the Indian pubcaster Doordarshan’s international channel, is prepared to become an English news channel. The bilingual DD News could soon air only Hindi news, PTI reported. However, the Sanskrit programming on DD News would continue.

    The idea and decision of repositioning DD’s key channels were made after Prasar Bharati board’s brainstorming meeting, sources told PTI. The discussion on the two channels was initiated by Prasar chairperson A Surya Prakash.

    After the meeting, the board directed that the channels need to be repositioned soon, and asked Doordarshan director-general Supriya Sahu, and other top officials to work in this regard.

    Owing to paucity of resources, while DD India has struggled to grow up to the level of a leading global channel, DD News has had its own issues. It is a type of hybrid channel, which delivered news in English as well Hindi.

    While many earlier expected that DD India would be ranked with the best of channels, its impact was affected by a combination of factors, including poor distribution and a resource crunch. At the meeting, it was decided that DD India will now be seen in a new form — as an English news and current affairs channel catering to both, domestic and international audience.

    The Prasar board members also came to the conclusion that DD News would be made a Hindi news channel. It was felt that viewership was affected since Hindi and English news bulletins alternate on the channel.

  • YouTube & Vimeo to stream record DD show, producers explore tieups with pvt channels

    MUMBAI: The record-breaking two-season-old cshow with 400 million viewership across the globe which questions gender discrimination and patriarchal attitude is now prepared to bring its stories to the digital media through a web series.

    Challenging regressive cultural and social norms around early marriage, family planning, domestic violence and sex selection, Population Foundation of India’s show has already set edutainment shows record by achieving the record total reach from telecast of 131 episodes and broadcasts on All India Radio FM stations.

    Population Foundation’s executive director Poonam Muttreja told IANS that they planned to develop and disseminate edutainment content from the show on digital media platforms as well as increase online viewership through YouTube and Vimeo. Population Foundation team has shortlisted 10 stories from the show’s field interventions in Bihar and Madhya Pradesh which was in-depth, either through direct outreach programmes or through calls received on the Interactive Voice Response System (IVRS).

    About season three, Muttreja said, they were engaged in a consultative process with a range of experts, stakeholders, and civil society organisations to prioritise the issues that need attention. She said they would be continuing their partnership with All India Radio and Doordarshan and also explore partnerships with private channels to telecast the show as the issues were relevant for the Indian society.

    Also Read :

    Which Indian show has 400m viewers across 50 countries?

  • New Prasar CEO to leverage DD’s reach & bank on creative content, tech & social media

    MUMBAI: Doordarshan under the new Prasar Bharati CEO Shashi Shekhar Vempati is expected to scale new heights.

    He has some plans up his sleeve. When they are done with restoring the glory of AIR and DD by 2022, other channels would look pale, he told OneIndia.

    The DD network continued to have the widest reach across all channels. Vempati believes the reach was their strength and they would have to build on it to make a difference through creative use of content and innovative use of technology.

    The CEO plans expand the reach and deepen DD’s engagement in social media — so that it is impactful and effective, as a first priority.

    Vempati plans to restore trust in the Prasar Bharati ecosystem across all their stakeholders, especially their external partners and internal.

    The CEO finds it unfortunate that several critical issues had not been addressed resulting in a trust deficit and unnecessary litigation. Vempati plans work closely with all of the Prasar stakeholders to restore trust in their operations, policies and transactions.

    Nostalgia about DD, the new CEO believes, was the starting point for building “Brand Loyalty.” However, to attract and retain viewers, they had to go far beyond nostalgia. He believes they would have to capture the imagination of India’s youth, engage them with compelling content, and become a significant part of their everyday life.

    DD had the responsibility to reflect Indian values, Indian ethos, and the aspirations of a billion plus people. The world deserves to be told the India experience and the India story. The globe, Vempati believes, also needs to hear out to India’s perspective on global events and shifts in geo-politics.

  • Which Indian show has 400m viewers across 50 countries?

    MUMBAI: It is the actual subject of the story and its treatment which attracts the viewers and not the platform on which it’s being aired or the marketing strategy or the dramatics. This has been proven, time and again. “Main Kuch Bhi Kar Sakti Hoon” on Doordarshan’s which deals with current issues impacting the society such as sex-selective abortions and acid attacks has over 400 million viewers across 50 countries and has been aired across 240 radio channels and over the internet.

    It has beaten favourite and most popular cult shows on HBO and Netflix as well as current favourite Indian prime-time channels. The soap opera has been showcasing women-centric issues — from menstruation to domestic violence to, and from acid attacks to child marriage.

    Having given shows such as ‘Shanti’ and ‘Swabhimaan’, Doordarshan even today upholds the best form of progressive ideology in terms of making TV soaps.

    The record daily soap that talks about prevalent issues such as the high incidence of abortion of female foetuses and acid attacks is on the way to become the world’s most watched show. “Main Kuch Bhi Kar Sakti Hoon” has been dubbed into 14 languages and its third season is in the development stage. The show has been endorsed by Shabana Azmi, Sharmila Tagore, Farhan Akhtar and Soha Ali Khan.

    The show traces the journey of a young female doctor named as Sneha Mathur (which is being played by Meinal Vaishnav), who quits her well-paying metro job to work in her village. The show, produced by Population Foundation of India and Bombay Local Pictures, is being directed by Firoz Abbas Khan, who is a well-known theatre director known for his work such as ‘Mahatma vs. Gandhi’ and ‘Tumhari Amrita.’

    Population Foundation of India executive director Poonam Muttreja told the Guardian that the massive reach of the radio and TV series was unexpected. About their hotline established for viewers’ feedback three years ago, Muttreja said that on the first day they got 7,000 calls — which was 30 times of their expectation.

    Since its launch, back in 2014, the TV series has completed two successful seasons with over 170 episodes. The foundation even conducted surveys across 3,200 men and women in villages, before and after the show aired to record whether or not the series had impacted positive change in its viewers, Muttreja revealed.

    In the show, Mathur returns to her village after her sister, who is forced into a late-term abortion dies during the procedure. Mathur’s other sister becomes a victim of acid-attack after she joins a mixed-gender football team.

    Muttreja told Thomson Reuters Foundation that there had been so many stories from villages across India of how attitudes changed as a result of watching the programme. She narrated an instance of a slew of villages where men decided against beating up their wives; and a girl who decided to fight her village in order to go to college—all, after watching this show.

    The show is being applauded across the globe for doing what some of the biggest names in the entertainment industry have not managed to do.

  • FreeDish’s May auction a damp squib with no bidder in sight

    NEW DELHI: For the second time this year, Doordarshan could not hold its scheduled e-auction for FreeDish on 25 May 2017 because it had no bidder.

    Even as the public service broadcaster was prepared to set a record by holding a second e-auction in May, this turned out to be damper. The earlier e-auction which had been called off was on 11 April 2017.

    Although there was no official confirmation, indiantelevision.com learnt from DD sources that the auction could not be held because there was no applicant.

    In many ways, this is a repetition for the pubcaster in the sense that the e-auctions for the primary channels of DD National were postponed twice last year. A DD official refused to comment on whether this was because of the sharp increase in the reserve price.

    However, FreeDish bagged three new general entertainment channels in the 34th e-auction earlier this month.

    The e-auction was confined to only non-news and current affairs channels with a reserve price of Rs 80 million as in the e-auction held on 9 May when Sony Wah, Zee Anmol Cinema, and 9X Jalwa successfully bid to come on the platform.

    The Indian Parliament was informed earlier last month that Doordarshan’s DTH platform was soon getting approval to increase this capacity to 250 channels over the next two years.

    After final trials of MPEG4 and the success of the 32nd auction in February, the reserve price had been raised to Rs 80 million from Rs 48 million per slot.

    DD had also upped its payment structure. The participation amount (EMD) in the e-Auction was Rs.28 million – up from Rs 15 million along with processing fee of Rs.25,000 (non-refundable, up from Rs 10,000).

    Even the payment structure for successful bidders had been made stricter. The first installment of 25 per cent of the bid price with the applicable service tax had to be paid within one month from date of placement of channel. The second installment of 25 per cent of the total bid price along with the applicable service tax had to be paid within four months of placement of channel.

    The third installment of remaining amount after adjusting the participation fee and previous installments but adding the applicable service tax was to be deposited within seven months of placement of channel.

    If any of the installments is not paid in time, a penal interest of 14.5 per cent per annum will be levied. And if there is failure in depositing an installment for two months, the deposited participation amount along with any installment paid will be forfeited and the channel discontinued after a 21-day discontinuation notice.

    Although Free Dish will remain free-to-air with no monthly or periodic fee, the viewers will be required to register with DD FreeDish on getting the new STB from Doordarshan authorized STB dealers.

    FreeDish was launched with a modest bouquet of 33 channels in December 2004, and now carries eighty TV channels and 32 radio channels. This includes 22 Doordarshan channels and two parliamentary channels, seven general entertainment channels, 18 movie channels, 13 news channels, seven music channels, three religious channels and eight channels of other genres. The All-India Radio stations also piggy-back on the platform.