News Broadcasting
Ban on surrogate ads on DD to stay, government says
Information and Broadcasting minister Sushma Swaraj has ruled out any change in the prevailing policy of pubcaster Doordarshan being barred from airing surrogate liquor and tobacco advertising.
The status quo situation does not augur well for the producers, affiliated to Doordarshan, who have been hard pressed to find sponsors in a shrinking advertising market in the face of increased competition from the private satellite channels.
Clarifying a point raised in the Rajya Sabha by Rajeev Shukla, a member of the Parliament elected from Uttar Pradesh on the ABLC ticket, Swaraj said, “The government cannot allow DD to air surrogate advertisements at any cost. Even if that means loss of revenue, as has been pointed out .”
According to Swaraj, the existing programming code doesn’t permit TV channels, including DD, to air surrogate liquor or tobacco ads. She added that a panel which was looking into this issue had been sending “notices to various channels” and had managed to curb the menace of surrogate ads on TV channels substantially.
“DD cannot be allowed to air such ads and if other satellite channels are still doing so, we’ll bring them in line with our programming code,” the minister said.
Shukla, a former print medium journalist and a TV anchor for serials like Zee’s Ru-ba-ru, had mentioned during the CAS debate that there was no justification for not allowing DD to air surrogate liquor ads, after putting in a statutory warning, when the satellite channels were doing so.
“Why should DD suffer on revenue front if the law is not uniform?” he had argued. But Swaraj would have nothing of that.
When Shukla raised the issue of channels vying for the huge advertising pie based on TRPs, Swaraj quipped that the implementation of CAS would solve such problems.
“After CAS is implemented, broadcasters will know exactly how many homes are receiving which channels (if the channels are pay-per-view) and it would be a sure indicator of a channel’s or a programme’s popularity,” Swaraj explained.
She also added that the CAS figures would also help advertisers who would get authentic figures instead of those bandied around by broadcasters.
So it looks like DD will have to live with Dry Days at least for a while.
News Broadcasting
Times Network to air JVC Exit Poll across 5 regions on April 29
Four-hour broadcast spans states and Puducherry with data-led analysis
MUMBAI: Times Network is set to roll out what it calls one of its most expansive election programming efforts yet, culminating in the JVC Exit Poll on 29 April, with a multi-hour broadcast spanning key poll-bound regions.
The exit poll will air across Times Now and Times Now Navbharat, beginning at 5pm and 4pm respectively. Co-powered by Vedanta and Jindal Stainless, the programming aims to combine on-ground reportage with data-driven projections across West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Assam and Puducherry.
The network has deployed over 50 journalists across these regions, gathering voter sentiment and local insights in the run-up to polling. The effort builds on its ongoing election formats such as Election Yatra and Election Premier League, which have tracked campaign narratives and community-level issues.
In parallel, Times Now Navbharat has focused on constituency-level reporting in West Bengal through its Jan Gan ka Mann series, capturing voter opinions across diverse segments.
The coverage has also featured interviews with prominent political leaders. Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan and Congress leaders Ramesh Chennithala and V D Satheesan have appeared on the network’s election specials. From Tamil Nadu, voices including deputy chief minister Udhayanidhi Stalin, DMK MP Dayanidhi Maran, BJP leader K Annamalai and NTK’s Seeman have also featured in discussions.
On the day of the exit poll, the network’s primetime anchors, including Navika Kumar, Zakka Jacob and Sumit Awasthi, will lead the coverage. They will be joined by a panel of political analysts, psephologists and senior journalists offering real-time insights and interpretation of trends.
The programming will integrate grassroots reportage with analytics from the JVC Exit Poll, aiming to give viewers an early sense of electoral outcomes ahead of the official results on 4 May.
With its combined English and Hindi broadcast reach, Times Network is positioning this effort as a comprehensive look at voter sentiment, blending field reporting, data and debate to decode what could lie ahead when the final mandate is revealed.
