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License Fee and Direct funding of the Public Broadcaster
It is possible to
neutralise the influence of the government by building
appropriate institutional mechanisms (through statutes)
organisational structures, and by having healthy
traditions and conventions.
The definition of Public Service Broadcaster clearly sates that the expense of the Public Service Broadcaster should be collected from its users. According to that in some developed countries there exist a license fee system directly collected from the television set owners to meet the expenses of the Public Broadcaster. But considering the various factors prevailing in India , Friends Of Prasar Bharati demands that Prasar Bharati should be completely and directly funded by the government .Here we examine the various reasons why Friends Of Prasar bharati prefer direct funding by the central government.
In reality there is no difference between funding by the license fee collected from the users and the direct funding by the government. License fee is directly collected from the television owners for a particular cause (for funding Public Broadcaster). But in the case of direct funding the money is from a common fund .But that common fund also is collected from us only, directly or indirectly, Both are taxpayers money only.
One of the argument in favor of of license fee is that the concept that the direct funding will affect the independence and autonomy of the Public Broadcaster. The advocates of license fee think that the direct funding will make direct influence of the government .This is not entirely true, and can be avoided. If that argument is to be believed how we can say that our constitutional bodies (eg. judiciary, Election Commission..etc.) are independent, because they are also funded by the government. So The very argument that the direct funding by the government will effect the independence and autonomy of an organaisation is a biased view only. It is possible to neutralise the influence of the government by building appropriate institutional mechanisms( through statutes), organisational structures, and by having healthy traditions and conventions.
In a country like India the collection of so called license fee will be difficult to administer and costly to implement. Earliier in our country, there existed a system of Radio and TV receiver license fee and associated fee which was abolished as it was difficult to administer and costly to implement. Countries like Australia and NewZealand has been abandoned the licensee fee system due to the above reasons. They have substituted it by a government grant. Funding only through advertisements and sponsorship revenue will definitely dilute the very purposes of the Public Broadcaster. Because if the organisation has to survive solely by competing in the market, the Public Broadcaster will not be in a position to correct the market deficiencies by providing a genre of programming which is ideal for society.
Another important aspect ,in favor of direct funding by the government is the fact that digitisation or introduction of other modern technologies in the vast Prasar Bharati network requires huge capital investments, which can not be met by mere license fee. Even in countries where license fee system exist , Public Broadcasters depends heavily on governments grant and subsidies. For eg. BBC's world services are completely funded by government funds.
Prasar Bharati is not only the Public Broadcaster of our country, but also our proud National Broadcaster, which has great strategic importance . We need powerful National Broadcaster to uphold the unity and integrity of the country and the values enshrined in the Constitution. We need National Broadcaster in our border areas to counter the false propaganda of our hostile neighbors.
So it is very sensible to demand that Prasar Bharati should be completely funded by the government to serve its real purposes.
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