With the NDA Government assuming office at the Centre, seriousness is being shown towards ensuring professionalism in the functioning of different departments. One welcome step that has been taken to revamp the near-obsolete Doordarshan and All India Radio is the proposal to launch a channel called Kisan TV with a view to providing real time information on various agriculture related issues to farmers.

According to a report in The Hindu, the national broadcasters are in line to be improved in their functioning. Minister for Information and Broadcasting Prakash Javadekar had recently announced concrete steps in this direction to help state-owned media regain its lost glory.

Even Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, in his Budget speech presented in the Lok Sabha on July 10, announced that a Kisan TV for farmers would be launched this year. Jaitley had allocated Rs 100 crore for the channel.



Another The Hindu report said that Prasar Bharati Chief Executive Officer Jawahar Sircar on Wednesday took to social media to seek ideas on the contours and content of Kisan TV.

The new Government’s initiative to de-bureaucratise national broadcasters is a step aimed at addressing the demand voiced from different quarters since long. Till the late 1980s, there were just two Doordarshan channels — DD National and DD Metro which would caterer the news and entertainment related needs of the people and people even today cherish the glorious days of national broadcaster for its quality and reach to all parts of the country.

But with the early 1990s, there started advent of private channels which gradually chased DD channels out from the heart of the people. Same happened in case of AIR and Vividh Bharti with coming of private FM channels. This happened due to Government’s apathy to improve the quality of the national broadcasters and lack of professionalism in their functioning.

Today, there are hundreds of private channels, fulfilling the needs of viewers while Doordarshan’s popularity has drastically come down. Doordarshan was set up in in 1959 and it had monopoly on viewership for decades. Even after private players came in 1992, Doordarshan remained the country’s most viewed channel but since the new millennium, its popularity took a significant beating and hence its revenue too sharply went down.

According to a one-and-a-half decade old report, by the time DD significantly losing its steam became apparent, it was plagued by multiple problems due to which private producers, advertisers and audience began to desert it. The primary reason was mismanagement. The report further says that not even one car company advertised on DD and even two-wheeler manufacturers kept a low profile. Ads of Pepsi and Coca-Cola were found only during sports telecasts.

In 1999-2000, DD earned revenues of Rs 6.1 million as compared to Rs 3.99 million in 1998-1999. However, by the end of 2000-2001, DD’s honeymoon period was over. In 2000-2001, DD’s revenues were projected to grow at 6-15 per cent while private channels projected 40-50 per cent revenue growth.

Only FMCG companies continue to appear on DD because of its terrestrial network reaching the rural and semi-urban audience. Despite a whopping 21,000 employees, DD outsourced almost half of its programmes from the private producers. Underutilised infrastructure, improper investments and poor financial management badly hit the performance of DD and it could not stand in competition from private satellite channels. These problems continued to aggravate even till today which has rendered it like just a Government’s mouthpiece.

Another reason for the national broadcaster’s downfall was that it, unlike minnow private television channels, stopped experimenting with its content. However, DD’s British counterpart British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has always been serious about maintaining its position in terms of viewership with passing time and has successfully continued to be a top choice of viewers. In the financial year 2012-2013, it is a £5.102 billion enterprise.

Reflecting on the need for a complete overhaul in DD, Jawahar Sircar, after taking over as the chief executive of Prasar Bharati, said, “A complete overhaul of DD’s TV programmes, in both format and content, will draw the viewers that Doordarshan has lost to private satellite channels. You bring out a good product, spend money, put in taste, allow autonomy and engage right professionals, you will get the right product and if you have the right product, you will get the right revenues.”

Autonomy is the most contrasting difference between DD and BBC. The British broadcaster enjoys much more freedom as compared to its Indian counterpart despite the fact that both are statutory bodies.

BBC’s high credibility in the eyes of viewers is because of impartial public service. It can be critical about Government moves while DD is hardly ever seen criticising any Government decisions. Doordarshan doesn’t have an independent editorial policy like BBC.

Even in terms of content, the BBC is way ahead of DD. The British Broadcaster’s programmes are very diverse according to the taste of a wider range of audiences while DD’s stuffs are out of fashion and it is still functioning outdated set up.

To retrieve the lost glory of DD, the new Government will require to make it more competitive against private channels for which it will need more autonomy, financial aid and better technical support.

Doordarshan is passing through a tough phase in terms of revenue collection. In March 2012, it suffered losses of Rs 925 crore while its accumulative losses have been over Rs 13,500 crore. Not surprisingly, Doordarshan’s programming is hopelessly outdated, forcing even dedicated viewers in rural strongholds to migrate to cable channels.

Since, as Javadekar said that he had already discussed the modalities of revamping Prasar Bharati officials, it is hoped that concrete measures are in the offing for revival of DD and other national broadcasters and the attitude to treat it as a mouthpiece of the dispensation at the Centrre will be changed.

 

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