Question : REVENUE EARNED BY DD CHANNELS

(a) whether the Government monitors the financial performance of various private channels including their earnings and financial viability;

(b) if so, the details thereof;

(c) whether the revenue earned by DD channels is less than the earnings of private channels;

(d) if so, whether the Government has conducted any study to improve the revenue earned by DD channels to that of private channels;

(e) if so, the details thereof;

(f) if not, the reasons therefor; and

(g) the efforts being made to improve the contents, programmes, techniques etc. of the DD channels at par with prominent news and private channels in order to improve its coverage?

MINISTER OF THE STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF INFORMATION & BROADCASTING (SHRI C.M. JATUA)

(a) Ministry of Information and Broadcasting does not monitor the financial performance of private channels including their earnings and financial viability.

(b) Does not arise.

(c) to (e) No study has been conducted to compare the revenue earned by Doordarshan channels vis-à-vis private channels.

(f) Doordarshan’s mandate is to undertake public service broadcasting whereas private channels are driven by commercial interests. The parameter of revenue earning cannot be comparable.

(g) As informed by Prasar Bharati, improvement in production/telecast quality is a continuous process. Efforts are being made by Doordarshan to improve overall content, programmes, techniques etc. for the DD channels by –

(i) Acquiring quality software from various professional software houses/producers through Self Financed Commissioned Schemes.

(ii) Improving transmission quality with digitalization of the studio equipment.

(iii) Outsourcing good feature films for telecast on DD-I.

(iv) Improving overall quality of the in-house programmes by outsourcing better talent.