NEW DELHI: The Sam Pitroda Committee set up to review the working of Prasar Bharati on Tuesday set up eleven groups to work on various issues including the pubcaster?s relationship with the government.

The groups were set up after the first meeting of the committee. Pitroda later told reporters that the groups would report in a maximum of two months and the committee hoped to wind up its work in four to six months.

The groups are on Prasar Bharati-Government relationship; Technology and choices; Business Development; Finance; Organisation and Human Resources; Programming and Content; Archiving; Global Initiatives; Social media (for delivery platforms); Regulatory Mechanisms; and Competitive Analysis.

Pitroda expressed hope that the recommendations of the committee will be implemented. He was commenting on an observation by a journalist that recommendations of previous committees had not been implemented.

He said the group on archiving will study digitisation, and also monetising the archival material. The group on organisation and human resources would consider filling vacant posts and reduce dependence on casual employees.

He said social media had become a very important tool for spreading messages about Prasar Bharati and this will form an important aspect.

The group on competitive analysis would work on studying how public service broadcasters are managed in other countries.

Pitroda, Advisor to the Prime Minister of India on Public Information Infrastructure and Innovations is the Chairman of the Expert Committee set up by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry for reviewing the institutional frame work of Prasar Bharati.

The seven-member Committee includes retired Prasar Bharati CEO Sircar, 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.

The timing of setting up 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, like the Sengupta committee of 1996 and the Bakshi and Narayanamurthy committees of 2000 and suggest a road map ahead for enhancing the reach and potential of Prasar Bharati.

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 digitize 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 digitalization 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.

NEW DELHI: Senior media person Pranjal Sharma has been appointed Advisor in Prasar Bharati to devise strategies on ?News Media and Content Strategy?.

Sharma was until recently Executive Editor at Bloomberg UTV, which he had helped set up in India.

Combining media experience of around 21 years, Sharma is expected to help the pubcaster to foray into new fields in media.

DD sources said he will also look at the programme strategy of both All India Radio (AIR) and Doordarshan.

NEW DELHI: A sum of just over Rs 135.53 million is owed by different departments or ministries to Prasar Bharati.

Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari said that "recovery of outstanding dues is being pursued vigorously".

In a reply in Parliament, Tewari said that the Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity (DAVP) of his own Ministry owes an amount of just over Rs 98.43 million to the pubcaster.

The Health and Family Welfare Ministry owes around Rs 7.7 million, while Rural Development Ministry owes around Rs 17.7 million.

The Labour and Employment Ministry owes a sum of just over Rs 11.71 million.

Prasar Bharati will receive these amounts for carrying advertisements about the flagship programmes of the present government over Doordarshan and All India Radio.

MUMBAI: After a lull, the battle between broadcasters and TAM has resumed with public broadcaster Prasar Bharati moving Competition Commission of India against the audience measurement agency for anti-competitive practices.

The pubcaster had filed the complaint against TAM on Friday alleging that the ratings agency has been using its dominant position in audience measurement by excluding markets where Doordarshan channels have strong presence.

The complaint was filed under section 4 of the Competition Act 2002, which pertains to abuse of dominant position by a market player.

"On Friday (November 16) we received information from Prasar Bharati alleging anti-competitive practice by TAM. We will consider the matter through the week and if prima facie it makes a case, we will ask the Director General (Investigations) to probe the allegations," newswire PTI quotes a senior CCI official as saying.

Prasar Bharati has alleged that TAM has installed peoplemeters in 8,000 homes and only covers towns and cities with 100,000 plus population, which keeps keeps rural as well as smaller towns out of audience measurement.

The pubcaster had decided to move the CCI after its board meeting in September. Prasar Bharati officials feel that the organisation should claim damages from the ratings agency due to defects in its rating system.

Earlier, the news broadcaster NDTV filed in July a law suit against Nielsen and Kantar Media, which jointly own Tam India, for manipulation of viewership data. NDTV has demanded $810 million as compensation for the loss in revenues it has suffered over the years and $580 million in penalty for negligence by Nielsen and Kantar officials.

Ever since NDTV has filed the lawsuit, calls for setting up Broadcast Audience Research Council (Barc) has grown louder with the broadcasters being in the forefront of the demand.

The Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF), Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI) and Indian Society of Advertisers (ISA) have held several meetings on how to roll out Barc. The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) has also asked the industry to speed up the existence of Barc.

NEW DELHI: Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Minister Manish Tewari has assured employees of Prasar Bharati of early redressal of their grievances including long-pending promotions.

During his first visit to All India Radio, Doordarshan and the Prasar Bharati headquarters after becoming the Minister on Wednesday, Tewari was assured by Prasar Bharati chief executive officer Jawhar Sircar that the recruitment rules for most cadres were ready and promotions would be granted shortly.

Sircar said the government?s decision bear the expenditure on salaries of most employees and the recent financial concessions announced following the recommendations of a Group of Ministers had greatly helped the pubcaster in initiating new programmes.

The Minister was apprised about the functioning of AIR and DD and the broadcaster?s immediate plans for expansion.

The minister assured the employees that they were free to approach him directly whenever they had any problems.

NEW DELHI: Prasar Bharati has won a Full Member?s seat at the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU) Administrative Council after eight years.

The Administrative Council consists of 14 Full and Additional Full members, who are elected by the members of the annual General Assembly for a three-year term. Previous CEOs of Prasar Bharati had been Vice Presidents until former CEO B S Lalli refused to take the term as VP in Tokyo two years ago.

India?s name was proposed by Japan?s public service broadcaster (NHK).

"It is unfortunate that India did not even bid for a single seat last year, when the ABU General Assembly was held in Delhi, as the host country usually has a claim on the Administrative Council seat," the pubcaster said in a statement here.

The ABU, which celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2014, has more than 220 member broadcasters large from the region?s 58 countries ranging from Turkey in the west to Samoa in the east and from Russia in the north to New Zealand in the south.

The ABU runs a daily Asiavision satellite TV news exchange, involving co-production and programme exchanges and technical, programming, legal and management consultancy services, as well as international frequency planning and coordination. It also negotiates rights for major sports events, organises coverage for the region, and provides rights-free content acquisition for developing countries.

The organisation promotes the collective interests of television and radio broadcasters and encourages regional and international co-operation between broadcasters. The ABU Secretariat is located in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and is headed by a Secretary-General appointed by the General Assembly.

"The membership is another cap in the feather of the Prasar Bharati. Considering the competition from a number of countries, the unanimous support for Prasar Bharati was a major achievement. The membership gives India a direct say in matters as crucial as policy issues affecting broadcasters, negotiation of telecasting rights for major sporting events and ability to put across its point of view on the global flow of information," according to Prasar Bharati CEO Jawhar Sircar, who led a team of officers from various departments of Doordarshan and AIR to Seoul, South Korea, for the ABU General Assembly.

The Prasar Bharati team, which was camping in Seoul from 10th October, worked overtime to seek support from prominent members including founding member Japan?s NHK, South Korea?s KBS and Malaysia?s RTM. The Prasar Bharati Secretariat worked in the background, sending emails to all the members of the General Assembly.

Elaborating on the strategy adopted for the vital election to the 14-member Council, Sircar said, "We were able to persuade Pakistan to step down in our favour and Japan?s public service broadcaster (NHK) which is also a major financial contributor, to propose our name. Our team personally met with members of dozens of national public service broadcasters to present India?s claim for candidature. After seeing such a huge support for India, other candidates withdrew their candidature and we were elected unanimously".