REVENUE RISES TO ₹828 CR IN FY17 ON DTH BIZ

NEWDELHI: State-run broadcaster Doordarshan on Monday said its net revenue rose to ₹827.51 crore in the year ended March 31, surpassing its annual target of ₹800 crore. The broadcaster got ₹318.06 crore from government advertisements and ₹157.59 crore from corporate ads during the year.

Doordarshan, owned by Prasar Bharati, had reported a net revenue of ₹755 crore in 2015-16.

“We have surpassed our target this time and the revenue is much higher as compared to last year. Our DTH (direct-to-home) revenue has seen a significant rise. We have also tried to cut down on our expenditure,” said Supriya Sahu, director general at Doordarshan, adding that the broadcaster is in the process of re-evaluating its manpower requirements in a bid to pare costs.

The broadcaster, which operates 23 channels across the country, recorded the highest ever revenue from its free-to-air DTH platform DD Free Dish in 2016-17. DD Free Dish recorded a revenue of ₹264.17 crore in 2016-17, a 47% increase from a year ago. The broadcaster had generated ₹180 crore from Free Dish in 2015-16.

DD Free Dish carries 80 channels, including Star India Pvt. Ltd’s Star Utsav and Sony Pictures Network’s Sony Pal. It also broadcasts news channels like Aaj Tak, ABP News and News 24.

DD Free Dish has 22 million subscribers across the country, according to recent estimates from television viewership measurement agency Broadcast Audience Research Council (Barc) India.

Going forward, the broadcaster plans to add 24 new channels to DD Free Dish, taking the total channel count to 104.