Tag: Prasar Bharati

Resuscitating Prasar Bharati

The non-coverage of the last historic test match of Sachin Tendulkar by Doordarshan entailed numerous explanations by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry. Prasar Bharati – on its part – painfully chose not to telecast the mega event because of an unsupportive legal provision that financially favours the content right holders telecasting such sports events.

Every household watched the match of Bharat Ratna Sachin Tendulkar with nostalgia and gratitude since the most respected cricketer decided to draw the curtains on his cricketing career representing the nation and relished the visual treat gratefully acknowledging “Sachin the Legend” in great measure.

The Sports Broadcasting (mandatory sharing with Prasar Bharati) Act, 2007 mandates all right holders telecasting or broadcasting through radio to share the signals without any advertisements to enable Prasar Bharati to re-transmit on its terrestrial and direct to home network.

During the ICC Championship Trophy, ESPN (Now Star Sports 4) as content right holder had offered to share the live signals along with commercials embedded by ICC already. Prasar Bharati insisted on a clean feed and chose to telecast the event without any commercials that resulted in average of DD National TVTs soaring to an all time high – higher than other telecasting channels – for all the five matches proving that people in India preferred matches without intervening commercials.

The Honourable High Court of Delhi decided the issue in favour of the Public Broadcaster. After a series of discussions, marketing inputs and considering the dynamic changes in technology, Prasar Bharati decided to alter the proposed amendment by withdrawing the issue of revenue sharing substituted by a very minor alteration in the Act for the mode of transmission and platform which would enable Prasar Bharati to telecast the sporting events of national importance on the dedicated free-to-air channel of Doordarshan, DD Sports, where the opportunity costs were minimal. Amendments proposed to the Sports Broadcasting Act, 2007 basically focused on the revenue sharing with the rights holders from existing ratio of 75-25 to 40-60 in favour of Prasar Bharati.

A recent experiment showed how independence in Prasar Bharati can make an impact. A truly independent team with young professionals in DD News prime time has rattled the industry with ratings showing an upswing.

Ever since the Sports Act, 2007 was notified, Doordarshan has been telecasting sports events of national importance on its DD National terrestrial channel and free-to-air DTH network in compliance of the Act. In all, 43 events have been telecast under the Act till November, 2013.

In 18 events, Doordarshan suffered a total loss where even the amount quoted by the revenue management company, that is, the highest bidder out of Prasar Bharati and the content right holder was not enough to meet the opportunity cost (monetary value of advertisement revenue on normal programme) and in 25 events Doordarshan suffered a loss where even the opportunity cost was not realised.

Doordarshan had no choice but to undertake these telecasts as it is mandated to comply with the Act. The 25 per cent revenue share to which Prasar Bharati is entitled has been way below its financial obligations resulting in outright losses. It is time to stop lacerating incursions by commercial interests and to amend the mandatory sharing of Sports Broadcasting Signals with Prasar Bharati Act to avoid any further financial bleeding by the pubcaster.

Since 1997, DD has been demanding literal autonomy enshrined in the Act of Parliament and has been juggling its financial management with a depleting workforce superannuating in thousands every year without a Recruitment Board in place for inexplicable reasons. It is programmed inaction that cost Prasar Bharati heavily with the Member (Finance) with only one officer sanctioned to assist him in his Secretariat, managing the annual business of Rs 5,000 crore. The Personnel wing too has a crippled structure to handle the workforce of 48,000 sanctioned employees and continues struggling with inherited legacies along with land, buildings, technical infrastructure, ponderous liabilities and unsolved complex HR issues to manage.

Self sustainability and financial freedom are issues that warrant immediate solution. Vast tracts of land held but not optimally utilised due to technological advancements in broadcasting resulting in obsolescence of Relay Centres is an immediate viable option for unlocking of land for value otherwise they may end up being exposed to encroachments by land sharks.

The large number of government servants on deemed deputation to Prasar Bharati is a legacy that warrants serious restructuring to match modern day broadcast needs. While it has surplus of trained engineering manpower in its terrestrial infrastructure, and skilled manpower to manage content its news related function is grossly inadequate. The much awaited Sam Pitroda Committee report is expected to offer ample opportunity for government solutions.

There is a bright light in the horizon with a positive I&B Ministry leading from the front, correcting inherited infirmities and guiding legal and personnel issues to operationalise practical proposals and resuscitate Prasar Bharati to a genuine and vibrant public broadcaster.

As far as autonomy goes, all major successful public broadcasters in the world have functional and operational autonomy. The BBC model continues to be the best. The Supreme Court of India while delivering judgement in the case of Cricket Association of Bengal in 1995 brought out the need for total autonomy for ensuring plurality of use, opinion and also to ensure a fair and balanced presentation of news and public issues, the broadcast media should be placed under the control of the public, i.e. in the hands of a Statutory Corporation or Corporations, as the case may be.

While dealing with the issues of airwaves, the apex court noted: “Government control, which in effect means the control of the political party or parties in power for the time being. Such control is bound to colour and in some cases, may even distort the news, views and opinions expressed through the media. It is not conducive to free expression of the contending viewpoint and opinion which is essential for the growth of a healthy democracy.”

It further added: “The right to use the airwaves and the content of the programme, therefore, needs regulation for balancing it as well as to present monopoly of information and news relayed, which is a potential danger flowing from the concentration of the right to broadcast/telecast in the hands either of a central agency or of few private affluent broadcasters. That is why the need to have a central agency representative of all sections of the society free from control of the government is essential.”

On the other hand, broadcasting system control managed by states is found to be inconsistent with the basics of full democracy all over the world. S. Jaipal Reddy during the XIII Lok Sabha debate Session II Winter Session stated: “I do not think that our democracy is so backward to need the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. In fact, in no advanced country in the world do we have a Ministry for Information and Broadcasting.”

For a vibrant Prasar Bharati nevertheless, there is a need for the government to provide financial and personnel stability and ensure that attained ad hocism will be replaced. There is a bright light in the horizon with a positive I&B Ministry leading from the front, correcting inherited infirmities and guiding legal and personnel issues to operationalise practical proposals and resuscitate Prasar Bharati to a genuine and vibrant public broadcaster.

October 3, 2013
Afghanistan to have 24-hour TV news channel with Indian expertise from Prasar Bharati

NEW DELHI: Afganistan will have a news channel run by the public service Radio and Television Afghanistan (RTA) in the next three months which is expected to get technical help from Prasar Bharati.

RTA today signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Prasar Bharati which will enable the two public service broadcasters to exchange programmes and India will extend help to Afghanistan in infrastructure. The MoU was signed by RTA director general Zarin Anzor and his counterpart in Prasar Bharati, Jawhar Sircar. Abdul Rahman Panjshiri, head of international relations in Afghanistan, was also present, apart from All India Radio Director General L D Mandloi and other officials.

The news channel will initially telecast news for six hours but will gradually become 24×7 channel.

Afghanistan will send ten journalists and editors to India for training with the public service broadcaster to upgrade their talent pool, particularly, for their proposed News channel.

An MoU was signed by him and CEO, Prasar Bharati on 27 to further strengthen bilateral cooperation between the two countries in the field of broadcasting.

As part of its programme of development and reconstruction of war-ravaged Afghanistan, the government has already been providing assistance in the field of Broadcasting and Telecommunication and implemented several projects in various parts of Afghanistan. Sircar said that Prasar Bharati has been helping Afghanistan earlier on an ad hoc basis, but this agreement formalized the framework.

A number of transmission towers and television studios with modern equipment have been provided.

RTA has a network of 24 TV transmitters with downlink facilities at various parts, one 100 KW Short Wave transmitter with seven antennas catering service to its neighbouring countries and one Uplink Earth station in Kabul providing connectivity.

The Afghan delegation requested Prasar Bharati and the Broadcast Engineering Consultants (India) Ltd. (BECIL) to help in repair and maintenance of the existing transmission facilities such as Uplink, Short Wave transmitter, and TV network.

As there are lot of similarities in Indian and Afghan culture, RTA is very keen to have Indian programmes related to serials, documentaries, scientific programmes, films, etc.

Doordarshan has already agreed to send two senior TV producers to RTA to help improving the quality and bring creativeness and innovations in their home productions. Prasar Bharati has accepted the requests from RTA and has assured it all possible help in achieving their goals.

Addressing mediapersons, Anzor said the Afghans are very fond of Indian films and understand Hindi and Urdu. However, he agreed that its radio wing could take programmes in Dari and Pushtu languages from the External Services of All India Radio.

Sircar said that the exchange of programmes would be on a ‘gratis basis’ and India will bear the costs. There were possibilities of production as well, he added.

Panjshiri said short wave signals were not dissipated, and so AIR should be able to provide signals in medium wave or FM as Voice of America was doing. He said that Afghanistan would also like to learn from the Indian experience in Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM).

He said Afghanistan today had forty TV channels, four FM channels, and eight AM transmitters – in the private and public sector. There are five private news agencies apart from one run by the government.

Anzor admitted that there had been lack of communication, when it was pointed out to him that Afghanistan could pick up the streaming of AIR bulletins from its website and broadcast this in that country.

August 26, 2013
DD commences e-auction of six slots for its DTH Platform

NEW DELHI: In an effort to reach its target of 97 channels by the end of this year, Prasar Bharati is auctioning six slots on its free-to-air direct-to-home platform DD Direct Plus by e-auction.

A Bangalore based private firm – Synise Technologies – has been chosen to conduct the e-auction which commenced yesterday.

It is also learnt that Prasar Bharati is considering carrying out a change in its policy to try and get the best of channels on its DTH service.

Currently, Doordarshan’s DTH platform offers 59 channels of which 30 are private, 21 of DD, Lok Sabha TV, Rajya Sabha TV and two channels run by the UGC.

Four foreign channels – NHK, ABC, France 24 and Russia Sunday – complete the bouquet of channels on the DTH wing.

“The capacity to carry channels on our DTH wing is set to increase significantly as Doordarshan is planning to buy equipment that will allow it to utilise an additional transponder on satellite INSAT 4B,” a DD official told indiantelevision.com.

Prasar Bharati CEO Jawhar Sircar has earlier said another aspect that the broadcaster is considering is how it can get better quality channels on its DTH wing. “We are considering framing a policy by next year which will allow the best of channels to be shown on our DTH platform,” Sircar said.

There was a need to consider a new policy which would be transparent but also to ensure that the best of channels prefer to come to the Doordarshan platform so that they can be shown to viewers all across the country, he said.

August 14, 2013
The curious case of CCI’s TAM Media investigation

MUMBAI: The TV ratings tornado that had struck the industry a couple of months ago has died down and it appears as if even the same has happened with the TAM Media investigation being conducted by the Competition Commission of India (CCI). Of course the CCI will deny it, but, it does seem so.

The deadline for the responses to the queries sent out to media industry stakeholders by the CCI was 18 July.

“We had received the questionnaire by the enquiry committee of CCI on 18 July. The responses to which were sent to them on the same day. After that we have not received any update from CCI,” informs a highly placed official in Prasar Bharati.

It may be recalled that the CCI had started the investigation post a complaint filed by Prasar Bharati against the audience measurement agency for anti-competitive practices in November last year. The complaint was filed under section 4 of the Competition Act 2002, which pertains to abuse of a dominant position by a market player.

“We are still in the process of collecting data from the stakeholders. The matter is still being investigated,” informs a source from the CCI. The body has asked for an extension to collect the data. “There is a provision to extend the time frame and we are seeking extensions to ensure a proper investigation,” adds the source who refuses to comment any further on the investigation.

It was in late June, this year that the CCI had started sending out notices to key players in the media and entertainment industry seeking information on TAM in order to ascertain whether there was any case to be made against it. The notice sent by CCI was just the first step to find out what reported “wrongs” was TAM Media doing.

When Indiantelevision.com contacted TAM for its comment on the same, a TAM representative responded by say, “We have decided not to comment on the investigation.”

With CCI not yet completing the first step of investigation, how long will the body take to come out with its final verdict? Or are more pressing matters taking up its attention? “You can’t forget, things such as these have a process and take time,” says a media observer. “Don’t be surprised if a damning report against TAM emerges closer to the time of the ratings launch under BARC next year.”

August 12, 2013
Prasar Bharati’s Rs 280 crore debt to govt agencies

NEW DELHI: The empire is striking back. The Indian government today said it is taking action at the appropriate level to recover Rs 279.64 crore that is owed by All India Radio and Doordarshan to different government agencies for usage of transponders on ISRO satellites and also the spectrum during 2011-12 and 2012-13.

Prasar Bharati is itself expected to pay the various Central/State/Paramilitary/police organisations the cost of safeguarding the infrastructure, installations, land, buildings of AIR and DD, (such as the Mumbai Kendra pictured here) located across the country

However, the government has already waived a sum of Rs 1349.54 crore that was due to various agencies till 31 March 2011 following the recommendation of the group of Ministers on Prasar Bharati in September 2011.

Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari told Parliament today that Prasar Bharati owes Rs 163.26 crore to the Indian Space Research Organisation for space segment and Rs 116.38 crore to the Communication and Information Technology Ministry as spectrum charges for these two years.

Of the dues, the share of All India Radio for 2011-12 and 2012-13 is Rs 36.46 crore (Rs 16.26 crore and Rs 20.2 crore respectively) while that of Doordarshan is Rs 243.18 crore (Rs 63.4 crore and Rs 179.78 crore respectively).

The Minister clarified that the government only meets the full bill for salary of the employees of the public service broadcaster, as recommended by the GoM.

Prasar Bharati is itself expected to pay the various Central/State/Paramilitary/police organisations the cost of safeguarding the infrastructure, installations, land, buildings of AIR and DD located across the country.

It also meets the salary and allowances of police and paramilitary personnel engaged by it out of its internal resources.

The annual dues on account of dues for such services are in the region of Rs 72 crore.

The Minister said if the pubcaster is unable to make a payment in a certain year, it makes sure this is done in the next financial year.

August 8, 2013
ABC International to be beamed on the DD Direct Plus

NEW DELHI: The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) has decided to hitch on to DD Direct Plus, the country’s only free to air direct-to-home platform. The channel has also decided to collaborate with Prasar Bharati in other fields like archives and indigenous and classical music for both television and radio.

This was stated by both Prasar Bharati chief executive officer Jawhar Sircar and ABC CEO Lynley Marshall during a discussion prior to the formal signing of a memorandum of understanding with Doordarshan.

Marshall said: “India has a rich heritage of classical music, and we at ABC can contribute by making available its collection of aboriginal and indigenous music for both Doordarshan and All India Radio.”

Appreciating the gesture, Sircar said that Indians needed to know more about Australia than what they read in newspapers or saw on foreign television channels.

The new carriage agreement, Sircar said, “Aims to strengthen the partnership between the two public broadcasters.”

“With this agreement, ABC International will be available on DD Direct Plus from 1 November,” added Doordarshan director general Tripurari Sharan.

Australia Network is Australia’s international television service, beaming 24×7 to more than 40 countries across Asia, the Pacific and Indian subcontinent. Its mission is to promote television and digital service that informs, entertains and inspires audience, with a unique Australian perspective.

The agreement was signed by Marshall and Sircar at a function attended by Sharan, DD News director general S M Khan and additional director general Ranjan Thakur apart from several senior members of both DD and All India Radio.

With this agreement DD, fulfils a part of its public service mandate to develop knowledge, broaden horizon and showcase the diverse culture of Australia.

Marshall welcomed the new partnership with Doordarshan, describing it as a significant alignment of the two respected public broadcasters in the Asia-Pacific Region. The partnership between Doordarshan and ABC will open many doors not only for carrying ABC International on DD’s platform, but also to explore specific areas like co-production activities, exchange of TV programmes, exchange of radio and FM (including music), interesting films, audio-visual materials regarding culture, history and geography from both the countries. These steps will help bring people of both the countries understand each other better and forge understanding and empathy.

Marshall also hopes to strengthen programming for children through this bond. “India will be interested in more news from Australia,” said Sircar.

Thakur informed Indiantelevision.com that they had earlier also signed an agreement with France 24. “This international english channel will also feature on DD Direct Plus platform from 1 November,” said Thakur.

At present DD offers 59 channels in its bouquet on DTH platform. “We expect to get the permission to increase the capacity to 97 by December,” he added.

July 31, 2013

Against all odds, Prasar Bharati continues to swim upstream : Brigadier V A M Hussain Member (Personnel) Prasar Bharati

An institution that has been the chronicler and mirror of India‘s history is feeling crippled. With a tenacious CEO under a dynamic Minister of Information & Broadcasting, it is striving to reinvent itself to meet the challenges of contemporary media scenario. Many new experiments are on to change the behemoth called Prasar Bharati that cost the exchequer a whopping Rs 150 crore every month. This public service media organisation is one of the oldest statutory bodies with a hoary past. It is under siege and calls for expeditious intervention to revive the glory of the old faithful that is All India Radio. Doordarshan, the audio-visual arm of Prasar Bharati is always in the public eye with viewers asking for more sumptuous and scintillating fare.

The Organisation is saddled with a disgruntled work force of about 50,000 who did not get a promotion for decades. To make matters worse, there was no attempt to infuse new blood in the system, either. An out-of-the-box solution is inescapable to break shackles of archaic regulation. The definition of autonomy needs to be revisited to meet the upheavals on the audio- visual landscape, in recent years. Section 33 of the Prasar Bharati Act directs prior government approval for all regulations governing conditions of service. Every employee appointed before October 2007 is considered a government servant on deemed deputation and their promotion is in government ambit. Instead of being a nimble, vibrant media organisation driven by merit, seniority and ‘babudom’ rule the roost. Proposal for a Prasar Bharati Recruitment Board as mandated by the Act of Parliament vide Sections 9 and 10 of The Prasar Bharati Act 1990 is gathering dust in files while government persisted in stalling promotions and new recruitments for two decades now. In effect, Prasar Bharati is like a ship caught in the turbulent waters in the mid sea with none to care on the shore for the SOS of the ship-wrecked crew. Merit and flexible structures are essential for a dynamic and extremely competitive media sector. Meeting the content needs of 750 million people through regional and national infra structure and boosting DTH and terrestrial audience are complex challenges, CEO Jawhar Sircar faces, along with ‘Sarkar‘, the real power.

A recent experiment showed how independence in Prasar Bharati can make an impact. A truly independent team with young professionals in DD News prime time has rattled the industry with ratings showing an upswing. Doordarshan launched a big advertising campaign for the revamped time bands of DD News, DD National and DD Urdu. This was the first such campaign in decades. A little more attention and circumspection are needed at AIR too which got maligned unfortunately by recent media reports of alleged harassment of its women Radio Jockeys. It is staring at a PIL now. FM Gold channel, with practically no permanent staff, earns substantial revenue for the entire AIR network while private FM channels are yearning for popularity with smart young professionals even in small towns and villages. The recently appointed Sam Pitroda Committee has set itself tasks suggesting visible changes for reviving Prasar Bharati. There is a wealth of data and content in archives that can propel AIR to the top of the charts. The expert groups are offering many practical suggestions and initiatives on many fronts including technology, content management, financial independence, government relations and human resources. Dr. Pitroda believes that generational change can be brought about by radical thinking instead of mere cosmetic changes.

The financial situation continues to be precarious for Prasar Bharati with complex legacies. An unprepared bureaucracy opted for accrual system of accounting and enforced income tax while loans in perpetuity and penal interests soared.The government rescued Prasar Bharati by writing off large sums due as segment hiring and space spectrum charges incurred in the course of broadcasting mandated content, non commercial in nature. Income tax claims stand withdrawn while local bodies continue levying the public broadcaster with huge taxes on property of Union of India but Prasar Bharati has just been permitted use of the government emblem. This is a paradox since 50,000 salaried employees of government are using these assets for functions statutorily assigned by an Act of Parliament. Welcome initiatives of the GOM relieved Prasar Bharati from its financial crystal maze for now by converting loans in perpetuity as grants.

The need of the hour is to professionalise Prasar Bharati with content-driven channels and professional-driven management owing total allegiance to Prasar Bharati to meaningfully accomplish objectives that were originally dreamt and scripted by the authors of an autonomous public service broadcaster. The dream is worth realising.
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Apprehensions often raised on the need for a government-funded national public broadcaster are ill-founded. We need an unbiased institution to bench mark initiatives on information, education and entertainment. At the same time, the government needs a media window to show case its policies, initiatives and views by running its own video and audio channels. Government staffing of DD News and AIR News Service Division through Indian Information Service is controlled by the Ministry. The easiest course would be to sever the current nebulous association with Prasar Bharati and declare them government channels on the lines of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha TVs and leave Prasar Bharati to professionalise with autonomy.

The efforts of the government to empower through The Sports Broadcasting Signals (Mandatory Sharing with Prasar Bharati) Act 2007 get breached frequently. Private business houses that own broadcasting rights of World Cricket tours use pre-embedded feeds of commercials and cause losses in hundreds of crore to Doordarshan. Expeditious amendments would help Prasar Bharati and the government. Despite its huge work force, Prasar Bharati has inadequate structure of professionals managing its own security, assets, property, content, new media, revenue and marketing at the highest levels. The need of the hour is to professionalise Prasar Bharati with content-driven channels and professional-driven management owing total allegiance to Prasar Bharati to meaningfully accomplish objectives that were originally dreamt and scripted by the authors of an autonomous public service broadcaster. The dream is worth realising.

Will the Committee of Sam Pitroda be able to persuade the government to truly empower Prasar Bharati? On thoughts like this, we often remember Baba Amte’s saying “Faith is the promise of tomorrow” while the swimming upstream by Prasar Bharati continues.

June 4, 2013

DD’s Q1 revenues see spike thanks to new primetime programming

NEW DELHI: With new initiatives that have helped to add spice to the national prime time telecasts, Doordarshan managed to push up its gross quarterly revenue from just over Rs 322.4 million in the last quarter of 2012 to above Rs 503.4 million in the first quarter of 2013.

The monthly revenue for this time slot shot up from just Rs 9.21 million in October last year to more than Rs 197.1 million in March this year.

Doordarshan additional director general Raj Shekhar Vyas told Indiantelevision.com that this had been achieved by adding variety to the programmes and not necessarily getting stuck to the same series from Monday to Friday as most private television channels tend to do.

He said DD was set to break new ground with the telecast of Hollywood blockbusters in English from midnight onwards daily from mid-May. He said negotiations were on with the American studio Lionsgate Films. It was expected that the films would initially be offered without any payment. This slot was until now reserved either for old films or repeat telecasts, he said.

However, on account of a decline in national mid-day prime time slots between noon and 3.00 pm, the quarterly revenue went down from Rs 177.9 million in the last quarter to just about Rs 156.7 million.

Asked about this, Vyas said he was currently concentrating on re-vamping the evening prime time but would also overhaul the mid-day prime time since around 240 proposals had been received for various programmes.

Following an initiative by Prasar Bharati chief executive officer Jawhar Sircar, DD had for the first time decided to go in for out-of-home publicity and also advertised in newspapers, Facebook and Twitter about its new programmes. An initial sum of Rs 20 million had been set aside since Republic Day this year for this. Advertising in cinema houses will form the second phase of the advertising binge.

Vyas claimed that following directions from DD director general Tripurari Sharan, he had given the national prime time a youthful look with programmes like ‘Bharat ki shaan‘, ‘Yahan ke hum Sikandar,‘ ‘Ek Kiran Roshni ki‘ and ‘Yeh hai India Meri Jaan‘ by the renowned Saeed Akhtar Mirza remembered for the path-breaking ‘Nukkad‘ series. The channel also had its share of interpretation of classics like ‘Krishna Kali‘, ‘Gora‘ and ‘Sarsaswati Chandra‘, apart from old favourites like ‘Byomkesh Bakshi‘ and ‘Ek tha Rusty.‘

April 27, 2013
DD’s Q1 revenues see spike thanks to new primetime programming

NEW DELHI: With new initiatives that have helped to add spice to the national prime time telecasts, Doordarshan managed to push up its gross quarterly revenue from just over Rs 322.4 million in the last quarter of 2012 to above Rs 503.4 million in the first quarter of 2013.

The monthly revenue for this time slot shot up from just Rs 9.21 million in October last year to more than Rs 197.1 million in March this year.

Doordarshan additional director general Raj Shekhar Vyas told Indiantelevision.com that this had been achieved by adding variety to the programmes and not necessarily getting stuck to the same series from Monday to Friday as most private television channels tend to do.

He said DD was set to break new ground with the telecast of Hollywood blockbusters in English from midnight onwards daily from mid-May. He said negotiations were on with the American studio Lionsgate Films. It was expected that the films would initially be offered without any payment. This slot was until now reserved either for old films or repeat telecasts, he said.

However, on account of a decline in national mid-day prime time slots between noon and 3.00 pm, the quarterly revenue went down from Rs 177.9 million in the last quarter to just about Rs 156.7 million.

Asked about this, Vyas said he was currently concentrating on re-vamping the evening prime time but would also overhaul the mid-day prime time since around 240 proposals had been received for various programmes.

Following an initiative by Prasar Bharati chief executive officer Jawhar Sircar, DD had for the first time decided to go in for out-of-home publicity and also advertised in newspapers, Facebook and Twitter about its new programmes. An initial sum of Rs 20 million had been set aside since Republic Day this year for this. Advertising in cinema houses will form the second phase of the advertising binge.

Vyas claimed that following directions from DD director general Tripurari Sharan, he had given the national prime time a youthful look with programmes like ‘Bharat ki shaan’, ‘Yahan ke hum Sikandar,’ ‘Ek Kiran Roshni ki’ and ‘Yeh hai India Meri Jaan’ by the renowned Saeed Akhtar Mirza remembered for the path-breaking ‘Nukkad’ series. The channel also had its share of interpretation of classics like ‘Krishna Kali’, ‘Gora’ and ‘Sarsaswati Chandra’, apart from old favourites like ‘Byomkesh Bakshi’ and ‘Ek tha Rusty.’

April 27, 2013
India and Bangladesh to Consider Joint Collaboration on Mega-Film on “War of Liberation”

NEW DELHI: India and Bangladesh are to collaborate to jointly produce a film n the War of Liberation of the former east Pakistan and a roadmap in this connection will be drawn up shortly.

Bangladesh Minister for Information & Broadcasting Hasanul Haq Inu today requested his Indian counterpart Manish Tewari that the Government of India consider providing the names of the soldiers who had laid down their lives during the War of Liberation. He reiterated that the Government of Bangladesh would like to recognize their contribution made during this historical event.

The two Ministers had extensive discussions on critical issues related to Information and Broadcasting Sector.

Both the Ministers agreed to explore the possibility of setting up a joint working group on the critical sectors of the information and broadcasting domain to provide a roadmap for future collaborations between the two countries.

The Bangladesh Information Minister also requested Tewari to facilitate the downlinking of Bangladesh TV Channels through the private distribution network into India.

Both Ministers agreed to intensify the collaboration between Prasar Bharati and Bangladesh State Television in view of the Memorandum of Understanding signed between the two entities in 2011. The MoU had focused on mutual cooperation in the broadcast of television programmes between the two broadcasters. It was also mentioned that both countries could consider exchange of programmes and also explore the possibility of executive TV co-production.

Both Tewari and Inu discussed the possibility of strengthening collaboration as far as training and capacity building was concerned between institutions of mutual interests.

During the discussions, the Ministers agreed to facilitate the exchange of archival material between the two countries. In this context, Tewari highlighted the major policy initiatives undertaken by the Ministry that had enabled the sector to grow exponentially.

Specific reference was made to the initiatives undertaken by the Ministry to commemorate 100 years of Indian Cinema, the Digitization programme and the policies that were introduced to promote inclusive growth in the country. Both the Ministers were assisted by senior officials of the Ministries of India and Bangladesh.

April 11, 2013