Revenues of public broadcaster Prasar Bharati decline.

            An increasing gap between the operational cost and revenue generation of the Prasar Bharati has been registered at a time when the Second Group of Ministers on the restructuring of the public broadcaster has decided to cut 50 per cent support to it and let it fend for itself for the rest of the financial needs.


          A Parliamentary Standing Committee on the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has noted that Prasar Bharati (All India Radio and Doordarshan) earn revenue mainly through commercial means (advertisements, sporting events etc), but commercial receipts had been gradually declining.

        During 2007-08, the public broadcaster earned Rs 936.78 Crore which came down to Rs 762.58 Crore during 2009-10. Likewise, there was increasing gap between operational cost and revenue generation.The gap was Rs 712 Crore in 2007-08 which increased to Rs 1185 Crore in 2008-09 and to Rs 1742 Crore in 2009-10.

        The committee has advised the public broadcaster that as an autonomous organisation it should find out ways and means to mobilise funds to reduce dependence on government funds. It said it has been informed that both AIR and DD can earn revenue by taking some policy decisions which include sharing of their infrastructure such as towers, building, land with private broadcasters, mobile service providers on license basis.

        Besides, the Prasar Bharati can also provide value added services to the listeners, and rationalise tax structure of the rental resources. ''With vast infrastructure and skilled manpower, which private channels may not possess, Prasar Bharati can reasonably enhance its revenue by adopting suitable marketing strategies,'' it said.

        Aggressive marketing, content improvement, increasing quality of in-house programmes by exploring better talent from among professionals were some of the measures suggested by the committee to the public broadcaster.

        The Committee also said in its report that the coming Common Wealth Games, for which the Prasar Bharati was the host broadcaster, should be taken as a great opportunity to bridge the gap between operational expenditures and revenue earning by means of commercial advertisement.

       The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has been asked by the Committee to examine these suggestions and report back to it.

 

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