Information and broadcasting minister Sushma Swaraj, responding to recent criticism directed at Prasar Bharati, promised yesterday in parliament that the public broadcaster had taken steps to increase revenues, adding it had set itself a revenue goal of Rs7,500 million.

Henceforth, Prasar Bharati would adopt a "proactive and market friendly approach towards producers, advertisers, ad agencies and sponsoring bodies," Swaraj said.

Swaraj also stated that regional centres would get "functional autonomy‘‘ regarding commercial matters. Swaraj added that an in-house marketing wing would be set up in Mumbai which would have the responsibility of ensuring programmes were marketed effectively. Swaraj said Prasar Bharati had set a target of RS 7,500 million in revenue collections for 2001-02.

The standing committee on information technology, a body constituted by parliament, had in a report recently slammed Prasar Bharati for the decline in the number of in-house programmes, lack of marketing machinery and poor reception quality of Doordarshan.

The report said: ‘‘Private channels have set up an effective marketing machinery in terms of infrastructure and manpower and they are able to attract business, which otherwise should have come to Prasar Bharati.‘‘

The report advised Prasar Bharati that it should modify and strengthen its marketing system in an organised and systematic way without further loss of time.

HFCL-Nine Broadcasting has denied reports that it had defaulted on payments to national broadcaster Doordarshan and said all its dues had been cleared.

The clarification came in the wake of reports yesterday that HFCL-Nine had defaulted on four instalments of payments totalling Rs 240 million over an eight-week period.

As per the contractual agreement, HFCL-Nine has to pay DD Rs 60 million a fortnight for its three-hour slot between 7 pm and 10 pm on DD Metro. HFCL-Nine had last year secured the rights to supply programming for the prime time slot for Rs 1,210 million.

Speaking exclusively to indiantelevision.com (read interview), HFCL-Nine CEO Ravina Raj Kohli said: "The facts are not correct. Technically, there were only three defaults - or rather delays. We had

not paid up because we were waiting and watching. We had submitted a proposal and were discussing extension of the current contract with DD. We paid up finally, earlier this week. We had the money."

HFCL-Nine is a 51:49 per cent joint venture between Himachal Futuristic Communications Ltd promoted by Vinay Malloo and Channel Nine promoted by Australian media magnate Kerry Packer‘s Publishing and Broadcasting Ltd.

HFCL-Nine has been under the spotlight in recent times because of its indirect association with cornered bull operator Ketan Parekh who has been accused of massive fraud on the stock markets and is presently in custody. Parekh, Malloo and Packer are partners in KVP Ventures, a venture capital fund set up for investments in the convergence sectors.