Revamped Doordarshan, AIR hope to make waves

DD AND AIR HAVE DRAFTED PLANS TO ENHANCE BROADCAST CAPACITY AND COVERAGE TO MATCH PRIVATE COMPANIES

NEWDELHI: Doordarshan (DD) and All India Radio (AIR) are embarking on a ₹850 crore plan to improve their infrastructure, expand coverage and strengthen content in an attempt to compete better with private television channels and radio stations, people familiar with the matter said on condition of anonymity.

They added that the outlay has been approved by the finance ministry.

DD and AIR, both owned by Prasar Bharati, have drafted elaborate plans to enhance broadcast capacity, improve infrastructure and increase the expanse of coverage to match the viewership and listenership of private television and radio companies. The money sanctioned to both entities will be across financial years 2018-19 and 2019-20.

One of the people familiar with the developments, an official in the ministry of information and broadcasting, said DD has been sanctioned ₹200 crore exclusively for overhauling its content. “As a public broadcaster, DD has the responsibility to air programmes and messages that are socially relevant, which private broadcasters don’t do. DD cannot put out programmes with a certain content that can be moneyspinners for some private channels. So the idea is to generate content that can grab eye-balls but still have a healthy mix of issues such as health, empowerment, envi- ronment and social justice,” the official added.

DD, which runs 23 channels in the country, earned ₹318.06 crore from government advertisements and ₹157.59 crore from corporate ads during the year ended 31 March, 2017. The TV advertising market with close to 900 private TV channels generated an estimated advertising revenue of ₹27,671 crore. The figure was expected to grow 13% in 2018, according to a forecast by Wpp-owned media agency Groupm in its report This Year Next Year (TYNY).