NEW DELHI: All India Radio (AIR) has posted revenue of Rs 2.94 billion for the fiscal ended March 2011, up 18.35 per cent from Rs 2.49 billion in the year-ago period.

This includes the commercial revenue of the AIR AM/FM channels and also the revenues earned directly by Prasar Bharati towards publicity campaigns of different government departments and ministries.

AIR has earned revenue of Rs 364.47 million till May this financial year.

The Government earned revenue of approximately Rs 17.48 billion till 31 July 2011 from Phase I and Phase II of FM radio. Out of this, the Government earned around Rs 1.78 billion over the last three years from 2008-09 up to 31 July this year.

Apart from the revenues from the open auction procedure for Phase III of FM, the government is expected to also earn substantial income from beaming news of AIR on ‘as is where is‘ basis.

A total of 245 private FM and 252 AM/FM channels of AIR are operational in the country.

NEW DELHI: Even as it blames Prasar Bharati for favouring the British firm SIS Live in the bidding for the Commonwealth Games broadcasting deal, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) says that the Information and Broadcasting Ministry delayed the tender process and left no options except to agree with the pubcaster‘s recommendations.

The CAG in its report on the Commonwealth Games with a full chapter on broadcasting also says Prasar Bharati amended the draft contract to allow SIS Live to "outsource almost the entire contract on the same day" to Indian firm Zoom Communications. SIS Live had been awarded the Rs 2.46 billion broadcasting contract.

In many ways, the CAG report supports most of the allegations framed by the V.K. Shunglu Committee appointed by the Prime Minister. However, the CAG report does not name then-Prasar Bharati CEO BS Lalli and former Doordarshan Director-General Aruna Sharma for causing a loss of Rs 1.35 billion as Shunglu had done. The report has, instead, pointed the finger at the Ministry and the pubcaster as a whole.
 
CAG in its section on the Media and Broadcasting Services says the award of the contract was flawed on several grounds.

"Lack of competition was facilitated by a rigid stand taken by Prasar Bharati at the stage of bidding, which restricted potential competitors, leaving only one ‘chosen‘ bidder," says the report. However, after SIS Live won the deal by virtue of being the sole bidder, the pubcaster amended the contract to "make it one-sided in favour of the SIS Live." Among the important amendments include the change of payment schedule, allowing a pre-Games payment of 60 per cent instead of 40 per cent of the contract.

The draft contract was amended to allow SIS Live to use "sub-contractors" such as Zoom Communications which went on to do the bulk of the work, but would not have been eligible to bid for the contract itself. The CAG report says this meant SIS Live was "acting essentially as a conduit" enabling the "back-door entry of Zoom".

The CAG also blames the oversight team, noting that the host broadcast management committee was marred by conflicts of opinion. "Of the 40 meetings for which minutes are available, only two are signed by all members. Objections to contract amendments were ignored."

Both I&B Minister Ambika Soni and Law Minister Veerappa Moily, who chaired the Oversight Committee together, did intervene, saying that changing the payment schedule should be re-considered. However, their intervention "did not have any lasting effect", notes the CAG.

I&B Ministry secretary Raghu Menon has admitted in a letter to the CAG that this was largely due to lack of time. The Ministry was "left with no alternative but to accede to the demands (of SIS Live), since non-telecast would be a matter of international embarrassment," says the report.

The CAG‘s report on the autonomous body also blames it for causing the loss of revenue of Rs 18 million by not allotting two vacant slots of its DTH platform despite 38 pending requests.

Menon wrote: "Given the circumstances and the fact that there is no time to initiate fresh process, the Ministry does not have the option of revisiting the issue." The secretary also mentioned that then Cabinet Secretary K M Chandrasekhar wanted the telecast to be ensured.

Soni at an Oversight Committee meeting constituted to provide policy direction on telecast issues, felt that changing the payment schedule can open legal intervention by other parties and said some parties chose to opt out of the bidding process because of the terms and conditions of the payment schedule.

In the same meeting, the CAG says, Moily felt the opinion of solicitor general Gopal Subramanium had not specifically given a finding on legality of changing the payment condition, which Soni said Subramanium should have done rather than leaving the decision to competent authority.

NEW DELHI: The Information and Broadcasting Ministry and the Prasar Bharati have made some recommendations to the Prasar Bharati (Broadcasting Corporation of India) Act 1990 about the relationship between the Government and the pubcaster and between its Board and the chief executive officer.

This follows consideration by a Group of Ministers of the recommendations of a high level committee headed by V K Shunglu relating to broadcasting rights for the Commonwealth Games last year.
 
The Prasar Bharati Board and the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has done a compressive review of the provisions of the Prasar Bharati Act, sources told indiantelevision.com.

NEW DELHI: Cricketing fans who do not have access to television are sorely missing out on the ongoing India-England series as it is not being broadcast live on All India Radio.

Industry sources told Indiantelevision.com that although the Sports Broadcasting Signals (Mandatory Sharing with Prasar Bharati) Act 2007 makes it mandatory for both Doordarshan and All India Radio to get signals of sporting events that are declared nationally important, the law is clear about only sharing live signals.

Channel 2, the exclusive rights holder of the radio commentary of the match, has refused to share signals with AIR since it claims that it is not broadcasting live signals, the sources said.

However, Prasar Bharati sources confirmed that Channel 2 had offered Rs 13 million to AIR on the condition that they would produce their own commentary and sell advertising rights. But AIR said after conducting an internal assessment that it could itself generate Rs 20 million in revenue from advertising.

Prasar Bharati CEO Rajiv Takru has said that the pubcaster will examine the situation to make sure that this kind of thing does not happen in future.

The tussle has deprived large parts of rural India without access to satellite TV - apart from those on the go in urban areas - from following the much-anticipated series.

However, former India captain Kapil Dev, who is now a director with Channel 2, is understood to have said that AIR‘s "allegations" were motivated and their attitude unprofessional. Dev added that since AIR had a virtual monopoly, Channel 2 could not sell the rights to anyone else. He also complained that AIR had not been able to take a decision despite being informed more than three months in advance.

A decision for the broadcasts may come in the event of intervention by Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni, Prasar Bharati sources said.

NEW DELHI: Tripurari Sharan, a senior Indian Administrative Officer who is presently serving in his home state Bihar, is to be the new Director General of Doordarshan.

Sharan is being posted on deputation in Doordarshan for five years. Informed sources expressed surprise since the normal tenure is three years.

Sharan, presently Principal Secretary for the Food Department in Bihar, is an IAS officer of the 1985 batch.
He has earlier served as Director of the Film and Television Institute of India, during which time he had directed a feature film ‘Woh subah kidhar nikal gayi‘ produced under the auspices of the Institute.

After interviews held on 15 March, the Prasar Bharati Board had prepared a shortlist of three persons for Doordarshan and two persons for All India Radio for the post of Director-General.

According to the procedure, this list was sent to the Ministry which was expected to forward it to the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) for selecting the Directors-General of the public service broadcasters. 

The names suggested after extensive interviews by the Board on 15 March - in that order - were L D Mandloi, Tripurari Sharan (1985, IAS, Bihar), and Ramsubhag Singh (1987, IAS, Himachal Pradesh) for the post of DG Doordarshan, while G Jayalal and L D Mandloi were shortlisted for the post of DG AIR.

The meeting had been presided over by Prasar Bharati Chairperson Mrinal Pandey and attended by eight other members including Rajiv Takru, Additional Secretary of the Ministry and nominated member in the Board who is currently holding charge as CEO.

While Sharan‘s name was third on the list for DD, it has been alleged by the Doordarshan Empanelled Producers Association that this order was changed following oral communication from the Information and Broadcasting Ministry and all Board members were asked to sign afresh on the new order of preference.

A majority of the members agreed with the new list but reduced the number of persons to just two. While five of the nine members including the Chairperson and Takru approved this new order of preference, three members removed the name of Ram Subhag Singh in the DD list. The ninth member insisted on sticking to the original order of preference, though he also removed the name of Singh.

In the case of All India Radio, the appointment of DG has been held up as at least one of the persons shortlisted - Jiyalal - has gone to the Central Administrative Tribunal, which has since reserved its orders after hearing both sides.

It may be recalled that the Delhi High Court had in 2008 said Mandloi - who has been asked to hold additional charge more that three times as DG - was qualified to be Director General of Doordarshan.

It is interesting that this comes close on the heels of two other IAS officers, BS Lalli and Aruna Sharma, having been indicted - the former in many cases, and the latter in the matter of the Commonwealth Games.