(a) the total revenue earned by the Doordarshan from the different
programmes during the last eight months;
(b) the extent to which this revenue is higher or lower as compared to
the corresponding period of the last year;
(c) the reasons therefor;
(d) whether the viewership of the Doordarshan has increased as
compared to the private channels;
(e) if so, the details of the comparative figures thereof?
THE MINISTER OF STATE OF THE MINISTRY OF INFORMATION
AND BROADCASTING AND MINISTER OF STATE OF THE
MINISTRY OF LAW, JUSTICE AND COMPANY AFFAIRS (SHRI
ARUN JAITLEY)
(a) to (e): A statement is laid on the Table of the House.
STATEMENT AS REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PARTS (a) to (e) OF
LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO.371 FOR ANSWER ON
18.8.2000
(a & b) : During the period Dec.`99 to July`2000, Doordarshan earned
commercial revenue to the tune of Rs. 450.20 crores. During the
corresponding period of last year, i.e., Dec`98 to July`99, Doordarshan
earned a revenue of Rs. 271 crores. Thus the revenue is higher by
Rs.179.20 crores.
(c): The main reason for this increase is due to realisation of old
outstanding dues and telecast of high quality programmes,
rationalisation in the commercial rate card, introduction of Holiday and
Saturday feature films and creation of additional chunks.
(d) & (e): Consequent on a number of measures taken by Doordarshan to
improve its viewership, there has been a definite upsurge in terms of
viewership to DD and it is back in the reckoning of the advertisers. As
per special evaluation study by TAM, there has been an overall growth
of 26% viewership between June, 1999 and January, 2000. During this
period DD-I was the most watched channel in all parts of the country.
In a typical home, a viewer spent 54 minutes a day watching DD-I
programmes whereas he/she spent 07 minutes with Zee and Sony.