ITV

Tag: Doordarshan

  • India SatCom-2015: Ushering in a new era

    India SatCom-2015: Ushering in a new era

    MUMBAI: Accounting for approximately 17 per cent of the global population and with a growing middle class and a large population still living in rural & remote areas, India presents large market opportunities for satellite communication services. With the government’s focus on ‘Digital India’, one of the significant market enablers for broadband penetration shall be over satellite, as a large share of the population still remain beyond the reach of the terrestrial broadband network including fiber and cable.

    To shake off  the inertia and cynicism and bring about an awakening call to the policy makers for the need to refocus on satellite communication policy and to realise the dream and vision of our Hon’ble Prime Minister – Narendra Modi to make  “ Digital India “ –India’s road map for providing inclusive growth & development for its entire population of 1.3 billion, we are organising a unique day long seminar about Satellite Communication and how we can use this technology to transform  the lives of the people of India. On behalf of Broadband India Forum ( BIF ), we are pleased to invite you to attend this gala event to be held on 16 January 2015 at  Hotel Le Meridien , Janpath, New Delhi  from 10am.  The theme of the conference is India Satcom-2015: Ushering in a new era.

    The chief architect of the ‘Digital India’ program- Hon’ble Minister of Communications & IT-Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad ji has been invited to grace the occasion by inaugurating the conference and delivering the inaugural address.

    The dignitaries who have been extended the invitation to be a part of the conference are Rahul Khullar, Chairperson- TRAI, Rita Teotia, Special Secretary- Dept. of Telecom and Kiran Karnik prominent Indian administrator chiefly known for his work in the broadcasting and outsourcing industries, RK Arnold, Member TRAI besides leading industry veterans viz. Vern Fotheringham-CEO & MD, Kymeta Corp, USA who shall be delivering the keynote address & David Hartshorn-Secretary General, Global VSAT Forum ( GVF ) who shall be bringing an international perspective  to the discussions.

    The occasion will also see the release of the White Paper on Satellite Vision – 2020 besides the launch of the India SatCom Forum under the aegis of Broadband India Forum. This will be entrusted to take the recommendations of the conference forward and work diligently to provide industry inputs in the New Satcom Policy-2015.

    The conference is expected to be attended by eminent visionaries, technocrats, industry specialists and bureaucrats from Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Doordarshan, Prasar Bharati, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited, Department of Telecommunications, Government of India, Telecom Engineering Center, Indian Space research Organization / ANTRIX,WPC (Wireless Planning & Coordination Wing) and from the Broadcasters, Satellite Service Providers,Satellite Operators, Telecom Service Providers, Broadband Service Providers / Internet service Providers, DTH Operators , VSAT Service Providers, System Integrators, Technology Providers  and Users.

    The conference has been supported by two large international organisations- the Global VSAT Forum (GVF)  and the Cable & Satellite Broadcasters Association (CASBAA).

     

  • Race for TRPs is blood pressure raising points, says Prasar Bharati chairman

    Race for TRPs is blood pressure raising points, says Prasar Bharati chairman

    MUMBAI:  Describing the race for TRPs among some private television news channels as ‘Blood Pressure Raising Points (BRPs)’, Prasar Bharati chairman A Surya Prakash kicked off the two-day conference of the Global Communication Association (GCA).

    Communication professionals from across the world gathered in Bengaluru for the conference with the theme of ‘Breaking Barriers – Creating new communication horizons’.

    Prakash went on to say that certain news channels keep having eight to 10 panelists debating at the top of their voices. “No other country in the world seems to have this kind of a maara maari on TV news channels,” he said and called upon the viewers to switch over to Doordarshan, if they get fed up with the private channels.

    “We do not ape the west, we are very much Indian,” he remarked describing the ethos at Doordarshan.

    Pointing out that mass media in general has been experiencing an exponential boom in the country, Prakash called for ‘our own solutions’ to meet the challenges of growth.

    Echoing the same sentiments, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramiah, who was the chief guest, said some electronic media channels appeared to be in a great race to meet deadlines. This was why, he said, sometimes the viewers might not see anything big in the so-called “breaking news”.

    He suggested that steps should be taken to curb monopolies among media houses and even private treaties. The role of the Press Council should be redefined to cover TV news channels as well, he said while emphasising that he always stood for the freedom of the press and constructive criticism.

    In his keynote address, Shell India former director of corporate affairs and communication consultant Deepak Mukherji, dealt with challenges in breaking barriers of communication and said the professionals ought to differentiate between trustable and trustworthiness. “We all seem to be experts in publicising promises and not what is delivered,” he said and called for an increased focus on the trustable element rather than talking about mere transparency among corporates.

    Conference curator and organising secretary Krishna B Mariyanka said the two-day event will focus discussions on faltering media social responsibilities, communication CSR through media, news distribution in social  media, communication for PPPs, sustainability communication, branding, new digital journalism, challenges in multi-cultural communication, political communication, digital privacy, healthcare communication, and so on.

    Achievers in various sectors will be felicitated with the AP Chowdappa memorial award for excellence in communication at the end of the conference. 

  • Doordarshan’s Freedish to switch to an upgraded platform to increase capacity

    Doordarshan’s Freedish to switch to an upgraded platform to increase capacity

    NEW DELHI: Doordarshan’s Freedish, India's only free direct-to-home (DTH) service, is migrating from its old platform to a new upgraded one with effect from midnight of 9 January (12.05 am of 10 January) in its attempt to increase its capacity.

    The migration would result in increase of TV channels from 59 to 64 and radio channels from 22 to 24.

    Prasar Bharati chief executive officer Jawhar Sircar said recently that the pubcaster would have to strengthen its DTH platform, Freedish if it has to survive.

    He had announced in November that Freedish was expected to go up to 112 television channels in the next few months but he had made it clear to the government that while most were coming through e-auctions, some popular channels may have to be ‘attracted’ to join Freedish since satellite television was the future. He said he was not opposed to digital terrestrial transmission but advances in technology may make it obsolete.  

    In fact in a pace that has surprised many, Doordarshan has held 19 e-auctions for Freedish as on 12 December.

    DD Sources also said that while Freedish may be encrypted to keep a tab on the number of subscribers, it would remain free-to-air.

    To access the upgraded platform, the viewers need to edit the Transponder Parameter by changing only the Symbol Rate from 27500 Ksps to 28500 Ksps in four transponders and retune/rescan their Set Top Box to receive the upgraded TV and radio channels.

    Freedish viewers can get further information regarding retuning/rescanning of their Set Top Boxes on DD's official website: ddindia.gov.in

     Viewers/subscribers who do not rescan their Set Top Box will continue to get only ten channels for a period of seven days only from the date of upgradation. Out of these ten channels, one channel is an informative channel which will show detailed procedure for re-tuning the Set Top Boxes.

     

  • Doordarshan to telecast bouquet of lively programmes on New Year’s eve

    Doordarshan to telecast bouquet of lively programmes on New Year’s eve

    NEW DELHI: In a new twist to its New Year programmes, Doordarshan News has announced special awards for the best news story of the year.

     DD News has listed 10 top coverages of the year and will give three top and 50 other prizes. Voting is on till 31 December night.

    The news stories include the General Elections, the Swachhta Mission, Kailash Satyarthi winning Nobel Prize, Kashmir Floods, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s American visit, Mars Mission, MH370 Disappearance, Peshawar School attack and so on.

    DD National will mark the day with a 2014 news roundup from 8 pm to 9 pm, variety programmes  by regional kendras including Delhi for their respective regions from 9 pm to 10 pm, and the national telecast of the variety show ‘Masti ka Dhamaal – Aaya Nayaa Saal’ by the Mumbai Kendra of DD.

    DD Bharati moves away from noisy entertainment to the quiet realms of home with yesteryears’ evergreen classics from 7:00 pm onwards on 31 December. The channel is marking New Year’s Eve by telecasting two choice light-hearted Hindi feature films from two different eras.

    Chhalia is a 1960 Hindi drama film directed by Manmohan Desai; it stars Raj Kapoor, Nutan, Pran, Rehman and Shobhna Samarth.  Raj Kapoor played like almost patented a simple guy with a heart of gold. Kalyanji Anandji composed the music and has given Mukesh’s most popular songs “Chhalia Mera Naam, “Dum dum diga diga”, “Mere tootey hue dil se”’.

    Shagird is a 1967 Indian Bollywood comedy film directed by Samir Gunguly. The film stars Joy Mukherjee and Saira Banu in lead roles. It is one of the few Hindi films made over the last 60 years that find a place of pride in the pantheon of classic comedies. The inimitable I.S. Johar as Professor Brij Mohan, with his deadpan expression and unique dialogue delivery, was the perfect foil for the exuberance of Joy Mukherjee as Ramesh.

    Akashvani brings ‘Guldasta’; a bouquet of programmes from all kendras of All India Radio and a programme on music from 11:10pm.

     

  • 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.)

  • Vajpayee multi-media exhibit opens in Delhi

    Vajpayee multi-media exhibit opens in Delhi

    NEW DELHI: Information and Broadcasting Minister Arun Jaitley has said the Multimedia Exhibition mounted by DAVP on former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee would serve as an inspiration and learning to the people in understanding Vajpayee as a politician, statesman, and poet.

                                         

    Jaitley stated this while inaugurating the Multimedia Exhibition being organised on the occasion of the 90th birthday of former Prime Minister at IGNCA complex.

    The exhibition will portray the life of Vajpayee through a display of around 250 photographs which reflects his vibrant personality. These rare pictures not only take the visitors through the political journey of this visionary leader, but also provide a glimpse into the diverse phases of his life – as a poet and a great thinker. At this event, different facets of Vajpayee’s life will be showcased through photo and electronic exhibition. Scrollers, Translites, LED walls, Large Fascia and Title Boards will be the major attractions of the exhibition.

    Apart from this, a drawing and quiz competition will also be organised on the occasion.

     

    The Films Division of the Ministry will screen three films based on the life of the former Prime Minister. The Photo Division has provided the photos being mounted at the Exhibition. The Song and Drama Division of the Ministry will be giving cultural performances during the Exhibition. The Publication Division has organised a Book Exhibition at the venue.

     

    Doordarshan has provided short films to highlight the achievements of the former Prime Minister. Minister of State for Information & Broadcasting R S Rathore, Secretary Bimal Julka, and other senior officials of the Ministry were also present on the occasion.

    The exhibition will be open to public from 20 December to 25 December daily from 11am to 6pm.

  • Bangladesh gets archival footage from AIR, DD on Liberation War

    Bangladesh gets archival footage from AIR, DD on Liberation War

    NEW DELHI: Bangladesh President has received the recordings of transmissions made by All India Radio and Doordarshan during the Liberation War of 1971 from President Pranab Mukherjee at Rashtrapati Bhavan.

     

    He recalled that valiant Mukti Bahini soldiers fought hand in hand with Indian troops for Bangladesh’s liberation. He expressed hope that these recordings will remind people of Bangladesh of those momentous times.

     

    Akashvani, especially the Kolkata station, played a critical role in upholding the cause of Bangladesh even before the rest of the world woke up. Unfortunately, most of the broadcast schedule and other interesting programmes were not kept in permanent format as archives because of several constraints. But Akashvani has been able to retrieve several tapes of that period and has already broadcast them for the last many years, to remind both India and Bangladesh of their shared legacy.

     

    At the request of Bangladesh Betar and the special interest of Mukherjee, a renewed effort was made by Prasar Bharati CEO Jawhar Sircar, AIR DG F Sheryaar, and DDG, Akashvani Kolkata to salvage more materials from wherever possible so that whatever is possible is put out in the public domain before both the nations.

     

    Two CDs have thus been produced in the last one month containing recordings from the Akashvani Archives of 1971 and early 1972. They represent the contribution made by Akashvani to the momentous developments of 1971, that led to the War in December, the Vijay Divas and the subsequent commemorations.

     

    The first CD entitled “Liberation of Bangladesh 1971” contains the public speeches from Akashvani Delhi of the then Prime Minister of India and the Lok Sabha statements, interviews and speeches of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the surrender of Pakistani forces on the 16 December, the public address of Rahman in January 1972 and other programmes, that are mainly in Bengali.

     

    The second CD entitled “Struggle of a Nation” is based on the recordings of Akashvani Kolkata, contains documentations of important happenings and events from March to December 1971 and the speeches of the then Prime Ministers of India and new nation of Bangladesh and live commentaries thereof.  It also has the ‘Samvad Bichitra’ newsreel programme that played a pivotal role during the Liberation Movement.

  • Little-known story of Moghul descendants on DD Bharati

    Little-known story of Moghul descendants on DD Bharati

    NEW DELHI: Doordarshan will telecast on DD Bharati a documentary titled `The Living Moghuls’ on descendants of the Moghuls later this week highlighting their lives in the India of today.

     

    Begum Laila Umhani and her sister Husn Jahanara Begum and their families are the many descendants of the Moghuls living in Hyderabad. Shorn of any royal or political patronage, the sons of Laila Umhani have adapted themselves to survive in today’s world. Their life is the subject of the documentary titled `The Living Moghuls’ on 19 December at 10:00 pm, repeated next day at 06:00 am and 02:00pm.

     

    DD Bharati in association with the External Affairs Ministry is telecasting ‘Cityscapes’, a six part series on six cities of India representing the diverse nature and histories of cities in India. It will be telecast the series every Monday on DD Bharati from 22 December at 10:00 pm, repeated next day at 06:00 am & 02:00pm

     

    Dasha Kumara Charita is a prose romance in Sanskrit attributed to Dandin in the 7th century BC. It describes the adventures of ten young men, the Kumaras, all of whom are either princes or sons of royal ministers, as narrated by the men themselves. These narratives are replete with accounts of demigods, ghosts, gamblers, intrigues with voluptuous women, astonishing coincidences, cockfights, sorcery, robberies, murders and wars. This series will be on DD Bharati from 23 December at 07:00 pm, repeated next day at 03:00 am and 11:00 am.

     

    DD Bharati presents from its rich archives ‘Titli’ based on the “Grasshopper” story by Anton Chekhov featuring Neelima Azeem, Alok Nath and M.K Raina supported by B. M Shah, Dolly Ahluwalia, Irrfan Khan and produced by Saba Zaidi. Alok is an earnest and rather boring young physician, who is preoccupied with his patients and his research, resulting in his wife Shalini having an illicit affair and regretting this too late. This telefilm will be seen on DD Bharati on 20 and 21 December at 11:00 pm repeated next day at 07:00 am and 03:00 pm.

     

    On the occasion of Christmas Day, DD Bharati presents a special compilation comprising sweet remembrances, moments and messages of “Merry Christmas” through music and dance on 23, 24 and 25 December. The compilation brings in series of programmes featuring a multi-lingual celebration of Christmas and the popular imaginary of Santa Claus as observed in various parts of country. The programme also celebrates the “Birth of Jesus” and Spirit of the Santa Claus through melodies of carols, histrionics of dance, and several lyrical renditions. The noted scholar Dr Arshiya Sethi who has curated the programme says: “Christmas is simultaneously a festival of values ideals, giving and rejoicing India offers a pan Indian scope for Christmas celebration a multi lingual carol tradition and woven in artistic expression to retell the life and glory of Jesus. This is spectacular and finds no equivalent anywhere in the world.” The Christmas programmes will be at 10:00 pm from 22 to 25 December.

     
    DD Bharati celebrates Good Governance Day on 25 December on the birth anniversary of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. This includes a poetry organised earlier this month by All India Radio.

  • Doordarshan automates its commercial operations

    Doordarshan automates its commercial operations

    NEW DELHI: Doordarshan is going full swing on its proposed revamp. And it’s not just the new programming lineup that the pubcaster is looking at.

     

    As reported earlier by indiantelevision.com , DD has been working hard at upgrading its backend services and in the process was looking at moving from its semi-integrated software that handles different departments manually, to Broadcast Air Time Scheduling System (BATS) software, which integrates all the departments online. The software has been provided by Media Nucleus.

     

    In the latest, Doordarshan has officially launched the BATS traffic and billing software which will now connect its Delhi and Mumbai offices. It can be noted that the pubcaster was looking at completing the integration in three phases. “This is the phase I of the process, in which we have integrated Delhi and Mumbai offices. Our aim is to complete the integration of all the 67 kendras by February 2015,” informed Doordarshan deputy director general CK Jain.

       
    The aim of the BATS software is to provide satisfactory services to the pubcaster’s clients and advertising agencies. Inaugurated by Prasar Bharati chairman Dr A Surya Prakash, the application will integrate all the departments of scheduling, sales and billing, which were earlier being handled manually causing delays and several disputes with agencies.

     
    The application will provide an integrated solution for all processes including sales, scheduling, billing and receipts. It is a menu driven enterprise, an ad scheduling and billing software which has been customised to the needs of Doordarshan. It has various modules associated with respective departments involved in ad-scheduling, logging and billing.

     
    The decision of upgrading the backend was taken since Doordarshan with its wide network of kendras and regional channels across the country was facing difficulty to monitor its outstanding revenue initially, as it was done manually.

     

    The chairman appreciating the initiative said, “Doordarshan should have taken this step 10 years ago but nonetheless this would bring much needed fairness and transparency into the system and will improve the overall efficiency and productivity of the organisation. Doordarshan is a media unit and has to function like a professional media unit as its activities are closely watched by all.”  

     
    Once implemented, BATS will bring much needed efficiency into commercial operations. This centrally-monitored software has all the relevant commercial details available on a single webpage for the management to check at one go. It ensures that all the information is relayed in real time across locations and networks.

     

  • RIO to affect Star’s sports and niche channel distribution: MPA

    RIO to affect Star’s sports and niche channel distribution: MPA

    MUMBAI: Star India’s new distribution approach has been the talking point for the industry. And now highlighting the same is Media Partners Asia (MPA) in its new report.

    Post the announcement of Reference Interconnect Offer (RIO) deals by Star, most multi system operators (MSOs)in order to keep both content cost and churn under check, opted to carry Star’s key Hindi channels on the base pack, along with free-to-air channels and lower RIO rate channels such as Nat Geo. In certain markets, 1-2 relevant regional channels have been bundled in the base pack.

    Not only this, many of the niche channels (English cluster) have been moved to higher or expanded basic tiers or available on a-la-carte basis.

    “This will adversely impact channel reach and viewership. However, the revenue losses on these channels will be partially compensated by reduction in carriage fee costs,” says MPA in its report.

    MPA, however sees a bigger risk, potentially to Star’s sports channels, as sizeable investments have already been made to creating non-cricket sports leagues leveraging Indian soccer and badminton.

    “These leagues are still in their infancy and require maximum distribution reach,” points out MPA.

    It further goes on to say that in cricket too, Star will broadcast the ICC World Cup in February 2015. However, according to MPA, with all India matches, semis and finals also available to viewers on public broadcaster Doordarshan, Star may have to rethink its incentive schemes in order to maximise its distribution of sports channels.  

    MPA estimates that the commercial rollout of package could take at least two to three months (completing in the early half of Q1 2015) and in the meantime, the delay will put pressure on the distribution of Star’s niche channels.

    “New channel launches for Star could also become equally challenging as it loses the luxury of having 100 per cent sampling on the cable platform,” it reports.

    In conclusion, Star’s new distribution strategy, will be a true acid test of consumer demand for its portfolio of channels. Viewership trends over the coming weeks will reflect such demand.

    “On a positive note, the outcome will help Star to prioritise and rationalise its content budgets, which have swelled across multiple genres, in recent years,” opines MPA.