Prasar Bharati set to close yr with 13% growth
NEW DELHI: Public broadcaster Prasar Bharati is set to close fiscal year 2021-22 with a revenue growth of nearly 13% over the previous year, chief executive officer Shashi Shekhar Vempati said.
“Happy to share Prasar Bharati will close FY 2021-2022 with strong revenue growth of 13% from commercial ops at nearly ₹1350 crore, fueled primarily by strong post Covid recovery of All India Radio and continued growth momentum of FreeDish and Digital despite uncertainty of pandemic,” he tweeted.
Since 2017, the broadcaster has expanded its footprint across segments according to ministry data reviewed by Hindustan Times.
The number of Doordarshan’s satellite channels have grown from 23 to 36 in this period, with the number of digital transmitters rising from four to 23. All India Radio has also expanded, with the number of stations increasing from 413 to 485. The broadcaster has also become the largest DTH platform in the country. From 28 million subscribers in 2017, its DTH customer base has now grown to around 45 million, with revenue rising from ₹250 crore to over ₹700 crores.
Data also show that Prasar Bharati has introduced a NewsOnAir application which has over 1.5 million downloads, and seen its subscribers on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube cross 10 million. Its network viewership growth has witnessed a 66% increase since 2017.
Vempati said the growth was a result of a 2019 change in policy. “Changes were made to how FreeDish DTH slot were being auctioned. From an earlier system where auctions were held randomly through the year, we have switched to an annual eAuction system. Further, from just two categories of slots we have moved to five categories of slots based on genre and language,” he said.
“This helped bring differential pricing to these slots. Lastly, the eAuction methodology was also changed to ensure competition and prevent cartelisation with a progressive increase in the reserve price. The cumulative impact of these policy changes has resulted in the growth of FreeDish revenues.”