There are plans to make All India Radio available on cable networks as a satellite radio feed.

The proposal is to be discussed by the Prasar Bharati board next month, Prasar Bharati officials told Indiantelevision.com today. Queried as to what AIR hoped to get out of this initiative, the officials said Prasar Bharati was looking at it as a possible additional source of revenues.

News that AIR plans such an initiative comes only a day after BBC World Service formally announced a deal in Mumbai with Hinduja Group MSO INCableNet to carry radio programmes on the network.

Well, the news and current affairs (N&CA) genre of programming space is certainly hotting up for action.

Forget Sahara readying itself to have N&CA programming. Don‘t even think Star News under full control of the Rupert Murdoch-controlled Star Group Ltd post March 2003 or Videocon‘s proposed news channel will be the last word in news.

" And if viewership figures are any indication, then Prasar Bharati board has something to cheer about.

As per a recent presentation made by TAM to Prasar Bharati officials, the majority of people in even cable and satellite homes still watch news on DD.

According to TAM data, culled from 27 cities for the week ended 25 May, the daily evening news hour (2000-2100 hrs) on DD National had a share of 90 per cent among all news channels in all TV homes and 52 per cent share in C&S homes. Likewise, the weekday‘s morning news hour (0700-0800 hrs) on DD national commanded 89 per cent share in all homes and had 52 per cent share in C&S homes among all news channels.

"This indicates if we can get our act together properly, we can cash in on the credibility of news on DD and have a dedicated news channel," the Corporation official added.

Learning from the "mistakes of the past", this time round DD News will give "more emphasis on generating N&CA programming in-house" instead of doling out a bulk of current affairs fare to influential media people as was the case on the erstwhile DD News.

Generating N&CA programming in-house will have a financial upside for Prasar Bharati too: the outflow of funds can be arrested. During its 18-odd-month existence, DD News had gobbled up investments to the tune of approximately Rs 1,520 million. "If the board gives its approval to DD News, this time round we can lower the outflow (of funds)," the official said.

Meanwhile, Prasar Bharati, a la private channels, also "presented" the new recruits to the capital‘s journos at a party hosted yesterday at the India International Center. The recruits have been drawn from organisations like Sahara TV, Zee TV, ANI and the Bangalore-based TMG

Less than six months after Prasar Bharati shut down its Doordarshan News channel due to lack of viewership, the pubcaster is contemplating reviving it.
This was confirmed to indiantelevision.com by a senior Prasar Bharati official today. It needs noting that when DD News closed down on 26 January after 18 months on air, there were simply no takers for the channel despite the increased interest in news post-11 September. The idea then was to devote more time on DD1 to news and current affairs.

Scientific Atlanta has announced that in order to increase its focus on the Asia marketplace it has named David Wheeler as country manager for Australia and New Zealand.

An official release informs that the strategic acquisition of BarcoNet late last year by Scientific-Atlanta offers many benefits to cable operators, programmers and broadcasters from the converged strengths of the two organizations.

Around the world, Wheeler and other Scientific-Atlanta managers are rolling out the company‘s integrated strategy of products, systems and services under the banner ‘Stronger Connections, Broader Possibilities‘.

Wheeler, who will be based in Sydney, returns to his native Australia following previous assignments with Scientific-Atlanta in Australia, Singapore and the US. Most recently he served as senior director, marketing for Scientific-Atlanta‘s Media Networks business unit - responsible for world wide marketing of the highly successful PowerVu digital video distribution system.

Scientific-Atlanta views Australia as an advanced broadcast and cable market populated by consumers who are early adopters of new technologies and applications.