PRASAR BHARATI: RESTRUCTURING DD

The new mantra at DD is: develop in-house capabilities. Ever since information and broadcasting minister Pramod Mahajan has got into the hot seat, he has been uttering the above mantra with increasing regularity. And this became clear last week, when the new Prasar Bharati CEO R.R. Shah announced that the network would be hiring management graduates and other qualified candidates, unlike in the past when the recruitment was solely from the government administrative services.

The broadcaster wants to market its commercial air time on its own as it feels that it can keep a rein on costs better and maximise advertising revenues. Hitherto, DD has been working on a commercial time-programme barter system, wherein private producers get provide programming in exchange for a telecast fee and some free commercial time. This practice has been frowned upon by the Centre for Media Studies, a Delhi-based media think-tank, which has said that DD is losing money because it outsources its marketing.

The CMS report which was commissioned by Prasar Bharati says that DD has to schedule its programmes better and ensure better coordination between programming and marketing in order to target the shows at specific audiences better. It has also recommended that DD should sell the rights for its huge programming archive, and rent out its facilities to outsiders.