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DD, AIR told to shun social cause, make money
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Doordarshan and All-India Radio (AIR) have been told
to cut down on social causes and make money. A
parliamentary panel has advised national broadcaster
Prasar Bharati to reduce air time to programmes with
social messages on Doordarshan and AIR because they
bring no revenue. This was in response to submissions by
Doordarshan and AIR that they were obligated to devote
thousands of hours to programmes no private channel
would touch.
AIR complained that its 215 stations were bogged down
by the weight of completely unprofitable programmes. In a
year, these included over 3,000 hours for Republic Day,
2,000 hours for Independence Day, 3,000 hours for Lok Sabha
proceedings, 5,600 for parliamentary broadcast, more than
2,000 hours for environment campaigns, 4,000 hours dedicated
to consumer protection and some 2,300 hours for petroleum
conservation. Programmes for industrial workers take up over
4,000 hours. Those for eradication of untouchability eat up
3,800 hours, and programmes on economic policies, over
6,000 hours.
"Nobody will come forward to fund because we are doing
programmes for industrial workers and eradication of
untouchability" AIR Director General Brajeshwar Singh says.
Responding to the hourly break-up for social broadcast, an
official of a private radio broadcaster exclaims: "For us, it
would be suicidal!"
The panel was told that the revenue earned by Doordarshan
was mainly through commercial activities such as sport events
and latest Hindi feature films. The panel concluded that the
number of hours allotted to government and social broadcasting
be limited, so that Prasar Bharati can maintain a "meaningful
balance between social obligations and financial consideration".
In fact, the panel has favoured a redefining of Prasar Bharati's
role and possible restructuring, so that it plays a role in informing,
educating and entertaining the public without ignoring the financial
and social obligations.
It has also recommended that AIR seek approval for restricting
the number of hours for social broadcasting.
"AIR should encourage corporate entities and multinationals to
spend a part of their social welfare budget on sponsoring such
programmes" it said.
Prasar Bharati points out that private channels, with no
obligations to burden them, are earning huge amounts of
revenue on the strength of television sets made available by
the government across the country.
Its CEO K S Sharma suggests a universal obligation fund to
be paid by private channels from their revenue, since they are
gaining from the '90 million sets being made available through
the public broadcaster".
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Gomantak Times - 25/4/05 page 5
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