Revamped..
“If DD has to produce shows in the genre of reality TV, it cannot do commercial shows that other private channels have, but will need to innovate. For instance the (DD) Kerala Kendra did a reality TV series on the best schools of the country,” the official added.
DD will also phase out obsolete technology and practices. “DD already has state-of-the-art equipment and studios, but an assessment will be done of the technologically- aged infrastructure and manpower,” the official said.
The public broadcaster’s flagship channel, DD National, does not feature in the top 10 Hindi general entertainment category (GEC) channels and generated 56.9 million weekly impressions between November 17 and November 23, 2019, as per the latest TV viewership data released by TV ratings agency Broadcast Audience Research Council.
Impressions refer to the number of individuals in thousands of a target audience who viewed an event, averaged across minutes.
At present, the Hindi GEC category is led by Zee Anmol, a free-toair entertainment channel run by Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd, with 839.5 million impressions for the same time period cited above. It is followed by Star Bharat and Star Plus.
DD claims that the reach of its news bulletins in Hindi and English is higher than those of the private broadcasters because of its terrestrial coverage. DD News channel was launched in 2003 by converting DD Metro into a 24-hours news channel. It reaches 49% of the population and 25% of the country’s area.
At AIR, the funds will be used for strengthening the broadcaster in border areas and those affected by left-wing extremism, expanding FM services to more cities, and upgrading technology (including bringing FM on digital platforms).
“The strategy for revamping the technology and production is ready and will be discussed by the Prasar Bharati board when it meets next,” said a second government official, adding the date for the meeting has not been finalised yet.
According to information available on AIR’S website, its home service comprises 470 broadcasting centres, covering nearly 92% of the country’s area and 99.19 % of the total population; AIR airs programming in 23 languages and 179 dialects.
If the public broadcaster overhauls its content, it will be able to compete with private TV channels, said Ashish Bhasin, chairman and chief executive (South Asia) at media buying firm Dentsu Aegis Network Media India Pvt Ltd.
“The old adage of content is king is what applies here. Advertising follows eyeballs and eyeballs follow good content. As a viewer, I’m interested in good content, and not the channel it’s broadcast on. So if DD can put out good content consistently all their other problems will start to go away. Both Doordarshan and AIR have significantly higher reach, especially as we move deeper in the country, towards Tier 3 and Tier 4 cities, which is a big advantage,” said Bhasin.
(Vidhi Choudhary contributed to this story)
granted bail. On September 2, Dubai’s Court of Appeals ruled Michel could be extradited and he lost his bail conditions.
In 2010, India signed an agreement to buy 12 Agustawestland AW101 helicopters to ferry the Prime Minister, the President and other VVIPS. In 2013, Italian officials arrested Giuseppe Orsi, the CEO of Agustawestland’s parent company, and said there were irregularities in the deal. Soon after, then defence minister AK Antony ordered a probe. In 2014, India scrapped the deal.
There were allegations the kickbacks for the deal were as much as ₹423 crore and Michel was accused of facilitating the bribes. According to the charges filed against him by ED in 2016, he received ₹225 crore from the firm.
“Christian Michel James will be examined with respect to his involvement in the case and confronted with documents recovered during raids by Swiss Authorities and received by CBI through LRS indicating the bribes paid by Mr Christian Michel James to the Indian authorities for securing the contract for supply of VVIP helicopters from M/s Agustawestland,” CBI said in a statement. and the NTCA standard operating procedure will be initiated,” he said.
Meanwhile, a member of another committee constituted by the Maharashtra government, investigating the entire if tigress T-1 allegedly attacked and killed villagers since June 2016, and the process in which she was monitored and finally executed, said their committee is expected to submit its report to the state government by December 5. The committee was expected to submit the report first on November 24, and later on November 30 but they failed to do so.
According to the order, special courts in Kerala and Bihar have to submit a monthly report to the high courts about cases where the police have not yet filed charge sheets, and where trial courts have not framed charges.
The top court asked the high courts to forward a report to the SC registry and to Hansaria to update it about action taken on its orders by December 14.
“Decriminalisation of politics is the need of the hour therefore it is a welcome judgment. An example needs to be set of speedy justice by courts also. Judiciary needs to tackle the issue of long pendency in all matters so that all litigants get justice in equal time frame,” Congress spokesperson Jaiveer Shergill said.
Gyanant Singh, a Supreme Court advocate, said, “Such a direction was required for speedy disposal of cases involving lawmakers since it is a step towards decriminalising politics.”