LS, RS CHANNELS MERGED INTO SANSAD TV; RAVI CAPOOR NAMED AS NEW CEO

Parliament integrated its two TV channels for the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha to create Sansad TV—a new platform that will continue to live telecast house proceedings and also pack news and current affairs programme in Hindi and English.

Officials said that the Rajya Sabha TV establishment—that runs from a rented public property adjacent to the Talkatora stadium, will be merged with the LSTV’s infrastructure to create the new entity.

Former textiles secretary Ravi Kapoor has been appointed as the CEO of the new entity for a period of one year on a contract basis, an internal order of the Lok Sabha secretariat said.

The plan was proposed by an expert committee headed by Prasar Bharati CEO Surya Prakash in 2019 and aims at cutting costs, streamlining management of the channel and rejig the content to make it a more attractive product for viewers and advertisers. Both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha TV were profit-making entities and the channels bagged advertisements primarily from public sector giants and central ministries.

According to the new plan, Sansad TV will have two platforms or channels to ensure smooth telecast of live proceedings of the two Houses of Parliament. “During the recess, the options would be to run current affairs channels in English and Hindi or just shut down one channel and run programmes on the other,” said a senior official involved in the plan.

“The integrated plan would be a major cost-saving exercise as the RSTV shells out ₹10-12 crore on rent alone for its office and studio on the Talkatora Road,” said a senior official of the Rajya Sabha.

The new address for the Sansad TV will be a small bungalow at Mahadev Road that also houses kennel for eight sniffer dogs of the Parliament security service. The Lok Sabha TV also has a studio in the Parliament library building and a feed centre on the first floor of Parliament building. These existing infrastructures would be enough, officials believe, to run Sansad TV.

BOTH LOK SABHA AND RAJYA SABHA TV WERE PROFITMAKING ENTITIES AND THE CHANNELS BAGGED ADVERTISEMENTS PRIMARILY FROM PSUS AND CENTRAL MINISTRIES