NEW DELHI: Swastha Bharat, a health programme that is telecast by Doordarshan from 30 ?Kendras? covering 29 states and one Union territory has received a new lease of life with the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the public service broadcaster and the Health and Family Welfare Ministry.

A total of 122 programmes are telecast in a week in 19 languages and 17 dialects. Thus 6,344 programmes are telecast annually.

The MoU was signed yesterday by Prasar Bharati CEO Jawhar Sircar and Health secretary Keshav Desiraju.

Swastha Bharat/Arogya Bharat/Healthy India has subsumed the ?Kalyani? series that had become very popular despite being telecast in just nine states. Revenue from Kalyani to Swastha Bharat grew from Rs 18 crore to Rs 150 crore in ten years.

Swasth Bharat Health Series is a much bigger platform for community health education and has even better potential from revenue earning. Swastha Bharat programme has successfully completed one year.

The main topics covered under the programme during 2012-13 were mother and child health, communicable and non-communicable diseases, health system strengthening, disease prevention and social determinants, regulatory issues and promotion of good health.

The new series is interactive with live in or phone in facility where viewers can interact directly to experts. Experts are specialists of specific diseases invited from government recognised institutes/hospitals as well as from renowned private institutions.

DD has used a creative approach in envisioning the format and framework of the new series which has been developed through consolidation of experience in running the ?Kalyani? Health Series.

NEW DELHI: Indian pubcaster DD has been seen as a laggard in the Indian broadcasting space, way behind private satellite TV channels. Its news service DD News has been spoken about in high light as being more news driven than other private channels which tend to focus on more trivial matters in their chase for TRPS. But this despite it is perceived as something audiences don?t tune in to.

Shattering that ?so-called myth? is Prasar Bharati CEO Jawhar Sircar. Speaking to indiantelevision.com Sircar says that The DD Newsnight on Doordarshan News in English topped all news channels for five weeks at a stretch from week 14 (24 March-30 March) to week 18 (21-27 April) in TAM?s weekly ratings for 2013.

He further adds that this is an all-time record, particularly for English news.

He claims that DD Samachar in Hindi was first among all news channels (including terrestrial) in that period; it was third amongst all Indian cable and satellite channels.

The ratings relate to the news slots between 8.00 pm to 9.00 pm (when Hindi NewsNight is telecast on DD Samachar) and 9.00 pm to 10.00 pm when English NewsNight is telecast on DD News.

Citing TAM data for the whole universe (cable, satellite and terrestrial), Sircar says that NewsNight in English on DD News raked in 0.95 average TVR in the 9.00 pm to 10.00 pm slot while the Hindi NewsNight on DD Samachar reported 1.14 average TVR in the 8.00 pm to 9.00 pm.

In case of only CS4+ and satellite excluding terrestrial, News Night on DD Samachar (0.84 average GRPs) ranked third behind Aaj Tak (0.93 average GRPs) and ABP News (0.91 average GRPs). NewsNight on DD News in English chalked up 0.76 average TVR as against CNNIBN?s 0.09 average TVR, NDTV?s average 0.06 TVR, and Times Now?s average 0.05 TVR.
Ironically, the ratings have come at a time when DD has filed for legal redress against TAM India?s ?misuse of monopoly? and the Competition Commission of India has commenced an inquiry into the allegations.

Sircar said, ?Though we have our problems with TAM India, and we have filed a petition, even they have admitted that DD has started topping the English news channel genre, between 9 and 10 PM when DD?s ?Newsnight? is telecast in English.?

NEW DELHI: The role of the pubcaster is coming under review to give it a push in the wake of growth of private satellite television channels and the government?s design to make it financially self-running. The Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Ministry has constituted a seven-member expert committee to review the institutional framework of public broadcaster Prasar Bharati, including its relationship with the government.

Sam Pitroda, advisor to the Prime Minister on Public Information Infrastructure and Innovations, is the chairman of the expert committee.

The committee will have Prasar Bharati CEO Jawhar Sircar as its convener. It will also examine the continuing role of the pubcaster and measures needed to ensure technical upgradation of the organisation.

The timing of the setting up of the committee coincides with the recent announcements of fresh financial packages to the pubcaster, and the government undertaking to pay salaries of employees who had been employed with the pubcaster as on 5 October 2007.

The committee will review the status of implementation of the recommendations made by various committees that have undertaken study of Prasar Bharati, namely, the Sengupta committee, the Bakshi Committee and the Narayanamurthy committee and suggest a road map for enhancing the reach and potential of the public broadcaster.

It can suggest measures to sustain, strengthen and amplify Prasar Bharati`s role as a public broadcaster with special reference to its relationship with government in the emerging context.

It will also suggest measures to digitise the archival material in the possession of Doordarshan (DD) and All India Radio (AIR) including material from independence movement era, and develop enabling infrastructure, in the form of data digitalisation systems, data centers and networks, etc.

The committee will suggest ways of using the new media to deliver digital content - both in broadcast mode (DTH) and in a demand-based mode (Free on social media like You-Tube, and on payment through IPTV).

It will work out a strategy for creating a network of domestic and overseas business partners for ensuring wider reach to a worldwide audience including creating an exclusive overseas service.

The members of the committee are retired IAS officer Asha Swaroop, who had earlier served as secretary in the I&B Ministry, B K Gairola (Mission Director e-Governance), Shekhar Kapur (a member of the National Innovation Council), Professor M P Gupta of IIT Delhi; and Jitendra Shankar Mathur, additional secretary and nominated member on the Prasar Bharati Board.

MUMBAI: Indian pubcaster Prasar Bharati has entered into an agreement with Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), Australia?s national broadcaster, which will allow both entities to show each other?s content to their audiences and also cooperate in other areas of programming.

The agreement was signed last week when a delegation of senior Prasar Bharati officials visited Australia.

Australian Minister for Arts and Regional Development Simon Crean, currently in India said the signing of a MoU between ABC and Prasar Bharati will help build a stronger people-to-people and media partnership between the two countries.

"One of the most important goals for the Australia-India relationship is to understand each other better. The ABC and Prasar Bharati will share program content by utilising the extensive Doordarshan and ABC networks, allowing audiences in India and Australia to develop a more accurate and up-to-date appreciation of contemporary developments in the other country," said Crean after a meeting with Prasar Bharati CEO Jawhar Sircar.

"This MoU will advance the Australia in the Asian Century White Paper?s commitment to build stronger, deeper and broader cultural links between Australia and India, including through collaboration between our arts, cultural and media organisations," he said.

The Australian minister said the agreement could also build on Oz Fest, the biggest Australian cultural festival ever staged in India.

"With over 100 events in 18 cities across India, Oz Fest exposes Indians to contemporary Australia. I am delighted that Doordarshan has supported Oz Fest by filming and broadcasting the Oz Fest opening concert in New Delhi on 16 October and a major concert in Bhubaneswar on 20 October, giving Indian audiences the chance to see some of the Australian best Indigenous performers, Gurrumul Yunupingu and Mark Atkins," Crean said.

NEW DELHI: Close on the heels of a financial package including some waivers approved recently by the Union Cabinet, Prasar Bharati today announced that the government had approved the filling up of 1150 posts in the programming and the technical wings of Doordarshan and All India Radio.

These posts are part of the 3452 essential category posts which were approved by the Group of Ministers (GoM) headed by the present Finance Minister P. Chidamabaram in 2011. A majority of these posts belong to Group B & C, that is, Grade Pay of less than Rs 4,600. While the Group B & C would be filled up by Staff Selection Commission, the remaining would be filled up by the Prasar Bharati Recruitment Board. The recruitment process is expected to be over by middle of the next year.

Prasar Bharati CEO Jawhar Sircar said: ?This is the first major infusion of new blood into Doordarshan and All India Radio after a period of 15 long years. After approval of the Cabinet for the financial restructuring, which involved a waiver of Rs 120.71 billion, this is the second biggest decision. It would go a long way in creating quality content for our viewers and help us in facing the emerging competition.?

The 1150 posts include Assistant Station Directors, Assistant Director (Programme), Engineering Assistants, Programme Executives, Transmission Executives, Technicians, Camerapersons, Production Assistants and Administrative Staff.

Member (Personnel) Brig. (Retd) V A M Hussain added: ?These were critical and essential posts, which had lapsed and needed to be revived. A number of our stations were without engineers and programming staff, which had affected their operations. It is a new dawn on the horizon of Prasar Bharati and will help the Corporation to tide over its acute manpower shortage.?

After the revival of the Prasar Bharati Board under the current CEO, it has been working on a number of plans to revive the public broadcaster through aggressive focus on shoring up revenues through marketing, organisational restructuring and manpower planning.

The pubcaster plans to have six senior officers with domain expertise to look after various verticals including Marketing, DTH, Technology, Infrastructure, Archives and Security. The Corporation has also engaged an HR Advisor of retired Secretary level to expedite promotions of staff persons, who had stagnated at the same posts for as long as 20 years and had little motivation to give their best.

In other organisational reforms, the Doordarshan and AIR zones are being combined into a total of seven zones viz. North Zone, North Central Zone, Central Zone, East Zone, West Zone, South Zone and North-East Zone. At present there are 12 Zones in All India Radio and six Zones in Doordarshan and 5 Zones in Engineering Wing combined for AIR/DD.

In the restructured model, each Zone will have three ADGs with one each for Engineering Projects, Engineering Maintenance and Programmes & Administration. The reorganisation, which makes DD and AIR coterminous for the first time in the history, is aimed at decentralisation and improvement in organisational efficiency.