NEW DELHI: Doordarshan will share 50 per cent of the revenue that it earns from the simulcast of the epic ?Ramayan? with Zee TV.

As in the case of Satyamev Jayate, a talk show that highlighted social issues, Doordarshan will do the marketing of Ramayan on its own, a source in Doordarshan told indiantelevision.com.

The simulcasting of these high pitched programmes is expected to provide bonus earnings to the public broadcaster, which has failed since 2007-08 to meet revenue targets by big margins. In 2011-12, Doordarshan?s earnings from commercial sales totalled Rs 7.94 billion against the target of Rs 12 billion.

The production of Ramayan serial by Meenakshi Sagar of Sagar Arts has been commissioned by Zee TV. Meenakshi is the granddaughter of Ramanand Sagar, the producer of the original Ramayan in the late 1980s telecast on Doordarshan.

Doordarshan also had a windfall this year in the form of MTV?s Coke Studio, which is being telecast both on MTV and Doodarshan. The eight-part Coke Studio started on MTV on 17 June and on Doordarshan on 7 July and are telecast on Saturdays at 7 pm on MTV and on Doordarshan on Saturdays at 8.30 pm.

Though Doordarshan has to share revenues of Satyamev Jayate and Ramayan with the private channels, Coke Studio was given to Doordarshan free of charge. ?DD was, in fact, paid for carrying the Coke brand. We also did not have to share any of the commercial revenues that we earned from the marketing of Coke Studio,? the Doordarshan source said.

DD will decide any future offers of simulcast on a case-to-case basis keeping the larger public interest in view, the source added.

In the case of Ramayan, Doordarshan felt that millions of young people needed to see the epic since the 1987 telecast of the Ramanand Sagar?s serial was seen by the older generation. The Ramayan serial on Imagine TV (then the channel was owned by NDTV and called NDTV Imagine) was not accessible to all since it was on satellite TV. Since Doordarshan is available to a majority of viewers terrestrially, it was felt that the simulcast will prove successful.

MUMBAI/NEW DELHI: Taking a leaf from Star Plus, rival Hindi general entertainment channel Zee TV has decided to simulcast the mythological epic ?Ramayan? on pubcaster Doordarshan.

Zee TV will try to exploit the time zone Star Plus had created on Sunday mornings at 11 with its Aamir Khan television debut show ?Satyamev Jayate?. Zee senses an opportunity as Star Plus has just replaced ?Satyamev Jayate? with ?Lakhon Mein EK?, the debut ratings of which will be known next week.

For Doordarshan, the continuity of the Sunday morning content with big properties from the two leading broadcasters stays. After ?Satyamev Jayate? ended its run on 29 July, the pubcaster will get to telecast ?Ramayan? that had created history on its network in the late eighties with an older version from the same producers.

"DD gets to air the prime Sunday morning properties of Star and Zee without playing any role in its conception. For the private broadcasters, the obvious strategy is to aggregate audiences and expand reach for these different kind of shows. This is the first time the mythology will run simultaneously on a private satellite channel and India?s national broadcaster. The airing of Ramayan will be interesting to observe in terms of the impact it leaves behind on the pubcaster," says a media analyst.

?Ramayan? will start on the two channels from 12 August. The new remake of the epic serial is being made by Sagar Arts, the same production house which produced the series on DD and Imagine TV. Ramanand Sagar?s granddaughter Meenakshi is the producer of the show.

Interestingly, this is Zee TV?s second attempt to bring this mythological series to its viewers. Earlier, the channel had aired Ramayan, produced by BR Chopra, in 2002. Forming part of Zee TV?s revamp strategy under the then CEO of the network Sandeep Goyal, the show bombed.

Imagine TV also launched with Ramayan as its flagship property in 2008. But after an initial strong burst, the show petered out and went off air in 2009.

Now ready for its fourth run on Indian television, the ?new? Ramayan will use social networking websites to connect with the younger generation. Needfully so. There is a growing young population in today?s India and audiences are fragmented and segmented with television offering plenty of entertainment choices.

"For the first time, we will see Ramayan tapping social media. Earlier in 2008, this opportunity was not there to connect with the new generation. So let?s see how the younger generation take to a mythology that is so deep rooted in our culture," says Subhajit Das Mohapatra, a researcher in sociology.

When the first serial directed by Ramanand Sagar was telecast on Doordarshan almost three decades ago in 1987, the common man on the street had begun to worship the actors Arun Govil and Deepika as Ram and Sita.

Zee TV has, thus, kept the names of the lead actors under wraps. Explains Ajay Bhalwankar, Head-Content, Hindi GECs at Zee TV, "Viewers should venerate Ram and Sita and not the actors."

In BR Chopra?s Ramayan, Nitish Bharadwaj and Smriti Irani played the roles of Ram and Sita. Imagine TV, on the other hand, had Gurmeet Choudhary and Debina Bonnerjee play the main characters in 2008.

"As these two versions didn?t fare well, the lead actors couldn?t grow into iconic figures. Also, Arun Govil and Deepika were Ram and Sita in a different age of Indian society," says Mohapatra.

Directed by Moti Sagar, the new version will have TV artiste Neil Bhatt play Lakshman?s (Ram?s brother) character, while Rishabh Shukla and Shikha Swaroop will perform the roles of King Dashrath (father of Ram) and Kaikeyi (wife of Dashrath) respectively.

The timeless classic based on ?Tulsidas? Ramcharitmanas? is still relevant in contemporary times and will use newer technology and special effects to provide wholesome entertainment and message to the entire family, right from grandparents to children.

Bhalwankar says there is a sea change in the kind of technology and graphics that are used in the latest version of Ramayan. "The scale is going to be really huge and state-of-the-art this time. It has been shot in HD," he adds.

The language has been simplified so that today?s generation is able to understand and learn from it.

"The story will be similar to what my grandfather had shown. Nothing new can be included in the story, but the presentation will definitely be different. The technology is much better today and we have worked on a lot of details of the characters,? says Meenakshi.

New Delhi: Doordarshan, India?s public broadcaster, has approved 163 proposals for programmes to be telecast on DD Urdu chanel, following a directive from the Prasar Bharati board on Monday.

Each of the proposals will be given 13 episodes each. DD on Wednesday placed on its website the list of 163 serials.

The board had on 6 August authorized Doordarshan to immediately proceed to build a bank of programmes for DD Urdu for the next six to eight months.

The Prasar Bharati has decided to grant phase-wise approval to the commissioned programmes for the DD Urdu channel. Prasar Bharati Chief Executive Officer Jawhar Sircar had told indiantelevision.com that the details of the selected programmes covering all six genres to be commissioned by the pubcaster in the first phase would be uploaded soon on the DD website.

"It was a long and complex matter. Besides budget considerations too had to be balanced", said Prasar Bharati Board Chairperson Mrinal Pande.

Out of a total of 1046 proposals received for commissioning of Urdu programmes, a total of 579 proposals were shortlisted by the three Committees under the chairmanships of M. K. Kaw, Prof. Shahid Mehndi, and former DG Shiv Sharma.

The Board felt that approvals in respect of all these 579 proposals was not feasible, not only because of the huge expenditure involved but also because of issues relating to quality control, limitations on slotting and maintaining a balance between various categories and genres. The proposals shortlisted on minimum benchmark basis, final selection for the first phase of commissioning was on the basis of fund availability and requirements in various genres, as per the fixed point chart during the current financial year.

Although Doordarshan?s DD Urdu commenced in November 2007 and over 1000 proposals for new programmes were submitted in two batches by around 800 producers since 2009, the channel is only beaming repeat programmes or those taken from DD Kashmir for more than three years.

According to the producers, proposals for commissioning programmes had been invited twice, and each proposal had to be accompanied with a processing fee of Rs 25,000.

Brief proposals were invited up to 21 August 2009, wherein approximately 639 proposals were received. Presentations for the same were conducted from September 2010 to November 2010 before a duly (single) constituted committee.

The second Commissioning was notified without concluding the earlier exercise by making minor modification in the brief, but without notifying any reasons for this action.

The proposals were invited up to 1 October 2010 and up to 430 fresh proposals were submitted. The presentations for the same were conducted from 26 December 2011 to 23 February 2012 before three Committees comprising three members each.

The producers claim that the action by the public broadcaster has not only harmed the interests of Urdu, but harmed the image of the broadcaster itself.

They said each of the producers spent Rs 200,000 to Rs 500,000 each and had undergone several hardships. Apart from the processing fee of Rs. 25,000 for each proposal, the producers had spent money on reputed writers, directors and language experts, expenses were made during the presentations including air/rail travel, hotel and local conveyance for the experts were undertaken twice, money was paid for acquiring of rights of novels /published works; re-payment of the same to maintain the status quo so that the proposal still remains viable; and professional fees (although token) were paid to the creative team to remain with the project, apart from payments to language experts.

The formal announcement about DD Urdu came on 15 August 2006. The channel has been on air for 24 hours from 14 November 2007. The Channel?s mandate was to encapsulate heritage, culture, literature, information, education and societal issues specific to the target audience.

NEW DELHI: A Committee is being set up by Prasar Bharati to monitor fast evolving changes in technology and take appropriate action with regard to Doordarshan and All India Radio (AIR).

Prasar Bharati chairperson Mrinal Pande told indiantelevision.com that this committee would also study changes in new technologies that were emerging.

In answer to a question, she said the growth of Doordarshan mobile TV would be considered by this Committee.

This would be in addition to the already existing Committee which is going into vision and programme content for DD and AIR.

Another Committee was set up headed by Member (Personnel) to go into the status of former distinguished employees. This will comprise board members including the Radio and Doordarshan Director-Generals, Muzzafar Ali and Prema Cariappa.

The Committee will work out a fresh scheme of financial assistance to distinguished artists of AIR and Doordarshan who are in indigent condition and are not getting any pension or financial assistance from the Government.

Prasar Bharati approved a monthly financial assistance of Rs 10,000 to C. E. DeMellow, wife of the late Melville De Mellow whose booming voice had enthralled millions all over the country both on radio and Doordarshan.

C.E. DeMellow is about 93 years old and is in an indigent condition. Keeping her condition in view, Prasar Bharati with the approval of the CEO sanctioned in June 2012 a lump sum amount of Rs 50,000 and assistance of Rs 5000 per month as an interim measure.

The board decided to double the monthly financial assistance to her to Rs 10,000 with a direction to AIR to ensure timely payment.

The late Melville De Mellow had joined AIR in April 1950 and worked till April 1971 when he superannuated. Thereafter, he was retained in AIR as Producer (Emeritus) for a period of 5 years. He belonged to ?staff artistes? category.

In 1991, the Information and Broadcasting Ministry declared artistes/staff artistes as deemed Government servants with effect from 6 March 1982 but De Mellow was not covered as he had retired in 1971, he was not covered under these orders.

Meanwhile, the Prasar Bharati board gave in principle approval to the long-awaited fee-structure in 26 different categories of non-permanent staff.

NEW DELHI: Rigid News Access Rules of the London Organizing Committee for the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games prevent news channels from even giving live news breaks of achievements by Indians.

Thus, while a channel can make an announcement whenever any Indian wins a medal, it can get the footage only around three hours later as the rights lie with Doordarshan and ESPN Star Sports.

In fact, the News Broadcasters Association (NBA) sent the News Access Rules to all its members late last week, asking them to exercise caution while covering the Olympics.

Non-rights holders or channels that are not the official broadcasters can use a maximum of six minutes of Olympic material per day, in accordance with the News Access Rules.

Besides, the six minutes footage cannot appear in more than three news programmes in a day and its duration cannot exceed two minutes in any one news programme.

The rules apply to all forms of broadcasting, television (free-to-air and pay television, cable, satellite, video on demand, including digital channels, digital multi-channels and services such as ?news active? or ?sports active?), radio, Internet, mobile platforms and other interactive or electronic media.

News channels that are telecasting Olympic-based programmes - studio discussions or special features - are not allowed to use words such as Olympic or London 2012 to brand or position their shows.

It is learnt that Hindi channels are using names like ?London Mahakumbh? while some other channels are using terms like ?London Dreams? or ?India Mange Gold?. There is no restriction on the use of London 2012 or Olympic Games in the regular news bulletins.

The guidelines also prevent television channels from using Olympic material for these shows. Olympic material includes ?sounds or images of any Olympic event, wherever and whenever broadcast and however sourced, including sporting action, opening and closing ceremonies, medal ceremonies or other activities which occur at Olympic venues,? according to the rules.

Indian news channels are unhappy with the rules and feel that limited use of footage and other restrictions as those prescribed will also hit their commercial revenue around programmes based on the Games.

NBA has, in fact, been urged to take up the issue as such access rules are framed at every major sporting event and affect the freedom of the news channels to report, sources said.

In any case, news channels signing up for accreditation to cover the Games have to accept these rules automatically.

Television News Access Rules:

1. Use in News Programs only: The broadcast of Olympic material may be used only as a part of regularly scheduled daily news programmes, of which the actual news element constitutes the main feature. News programmes shall not be positioned or promoted as Olympic or London 2012 programs and Olympic Material cannot be used in any promotion for any news programme or any other programme whatsoever.

2. Six Minutes Per Day: Non-Rights Holders may use a maximum of six minutes of Olympic Material per day, in accordance with all other provisions of these News Access Rules.

3. Number of news programs, Length and Separation of News Excerpts: Subject to Clauses 1 and 2 above, Olympic material may be used in news programmes subject to the following provisions:
a) Olympic material may appear in no more than three news programmes per day; and
b) No more than two minutes of Olympic material may be used in any one news programme; and
c) These news programmes must be separated by a period of at least three (3) hours; and
d) No more than one third of any individual event may be used in any one news programmes or 30 seconds, whichever is the lesser time. However, if the duration of an individual Olympic event is less than 15 seconds, the whole of the event can be shown in a news programme.

4. All-News or All Sports Networks: In the case of an All-News or All Sports Networks, the networks may use a maximum of six minutes of Olympic material per day during multiple news programmes, subject to the following provisions:
a) in no more than six news programmes per day and does not exceed a total of one (1) minute in any one programme. These bulletins must be separated by a period of at least two hours; or
b) in accordance with Clause 3 above - i.e. 3x2x3.

5. Airing after Broadcast by Rights Holders only: Non-Rights Holders may only broadcast Olympic material within a news program in accordance with Clauses 1, 2, 3 and 4 above and all other conditions contained in these News Access Rules, as follows:
a) As of three hours following the broadcast of an Olympic event by the local Right Holding Broadcaster on free-to-air television in that territory;
b) If not broadcast by the local Rights Holding Broadcaster on free-to-air television in that territory on the day (local time) during which the Olympic event concluded, then as of the end of the broadcast day (i.e. 24:00 hours local time); or
c) Non-Rights Holders can broadcast Olympic material prior to the times referred to above, or can broadcast more Olympic material than allowed above, only with the specific written agreement of the local Rights Holding Broadcaster.

6. Courtesy Credit/Rights Holder ?Bug?: Each Broadcast, communication or other broadcast of Olympic material in accordance with these News Access Rules must give an on-screen credit to the local Rights Holder by leaving on the Rights Holders watermark for the duration of the clip or, should the Olympic material not be sourced through the local Rights Holder, by adding a super video credit to the Rights Holder for the duration of the clip to read as follows: ?Courtesy (Name of Rights Holder)?

7. Olympic material must not be Broadcast on interactive services such as ?News Active? or ?Sports Active?, which would allow the viewer to make a viewing choice within a channel and to thereby view Olympic material at times other than when broadcast as part of a news programme as set out in Clause 1 above.

8. Should any fair dealing or similar provisions contained in any applicable national law permit the use by Non-Rights Holders of any footage of previous Olympic Games, then such footage will be included in the total of six minutes per day.

9. Olympic Material may only be used for a period of 48 hours following the completion of the actual event. After such period, Non-Rights Holders may only transmit archive Olympic material with the express prior written consent of the express prior written consent of the IOC.

10. For the sake of clarity, except as permitted within these News Access Rules, only Rights Holders are permitted to film within Olympic Venues and to Broadcast Olympic material. The broadcast of Olympic material by E Accredited Media, including Non-Rights Holders, via the Internet, Mobile Platform and other interactive media or electronic medium, is strictly prohibited and is a breach of these News Access Rules.

MUMBAI: Olympics takes first priority over cricket as pubcaster Doordarshan decides to give the upcoming India-Sri Lanka series a miss.

DD declined to telecast the bilateral series which coincides with the London Olympics that will see the largest ever Indian contingent taking part in the world?s biggest sporting event.
?We approached Doordarshan with a bid for the India-Sri Lanka series but they have refused since they will be focusing on the London Olympics,? Zeel chief sales officer Ashish Sehgal tells Indiantelevision.com. The Sri Lanka cricket series falls under the mandatory sharing of telecast rights provision under which private sports broadcasters will have to give the live feed to DD.

With DD out of the fray, the bilateral series involving five ODIs and lone Twenty20 match will be televised exclusively by Ten Cricket, the cricket dedicated channel from Zee.

The India-Sri Lanka series, which will be played from 21 July to 7 August, will clash with the London Olympics starting from 27 July and closing on 12 August.

Zee is looking at an advertising revenue of Rs 800 million from the series. Ten Cricket, the official broadcast rights holder for cricket in Sri Lanka, has roped in five broadcast sponsors. Hero MotoCorp is the presenting sponsor while talks are on with a telecom operator to take the other presenting sponsorship slot.

The broadcaster has roped in Royal Seagram, Lenovo, Reliance Netconnect, and Manipal University as associate sponsors. Besides the official sponsors, there are 20 other advertisers who have bought airtime on the property.

?We have got good response from advertisers. The fact that it?s a short series involving ODI and T20 format of the game and will be telecast only on Ten Cricket is working in our favour,? Sehgal says.

Hindi general entertainment channels like Star Plus and Colors have also shown interest in buying airtime to promote their shows, Sehgal adds.

The channel has got three more on-ground associate sponsors in addition to Royal Stag Cricket Gear which includes Hero MotoCorp, Zuari Cement and Renault. Handset manufacturer Micromax is the title sponsor of the series. Sources say Micromax has paid Rs 50-60 million to take the title sponsorship.

One India. One Jersey. marketing campaign

Ten Cricket?s overall marketing spends on promoting the series will be around Rs 55-60 million, including promotions on network channels.

The sportscaster is giving the series an aggressive marketing push through its One India. One Jersey. marketing campaign.

The campaign celebrates the fact that the India team is coming together after a long gap through a series of four TVC based on real life experiences.

The creative idea showcases how cricket unites people from various walks of life despite all the differences that exist. It will be driven primarily through television promos and digital initiatives.

?The campaign is based on various contradictions in life and how we as a society are divided on various things but when it comes to cricket we are all one so it could be politicians from two opposition political parties with different views but they have same views when it comes to cricket (Indian team),? Ten Sports CEO Atul Pande says.

Pande believes that the campaign needed to have a strong theme since there was lot of negativity around the Indian team due to back-to-back defeats against England and Australia.

?We are primarily focusing on television particularly News channels because this property has got a male skew. We are also looking to reach out to female viewers through channels like TLC and lifestyle channels. Then we have our network channels to drive it we are topping this with a digital campaign,? he avers.