In conjunction with the release of the book "Satellites over South Asia: Broadcasting Culture and the Public Interest," the British Council organized a discussion with the authors and various Indian television specialists, in addition to screening the documentary "South Asian Media," directed by Napur Basu.
Mukesh Sharma, chief producer of Indian government TV Doordarshan (Prasar Bharati Corporation), Mumbai, joined most of the private channels like Sony TV and B4U cable channels on the panel to debate the role of government in broadcast. Most of the cable providers and independent producers questioned which role the government should take, taking into account the 60 percent of the Indian population who only watch Doordarshan.
The Prasar Bharati Corporation has recently allocated its CEO Rajiv Shah (TBS interview 2000) to another position, and the Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Sushma Swaraj said she is setting out a "cost-effective strategy to extend coverage to all parts of India, including remote and sparsely populated areas."
Almost in response to the book's conclusion, Swaraj also addressed the Seventh International Conference and Exhibition on Terrestrial and Satellite Broadcasting organized by the Broadcast Engineering Society in New Delhi, emphasizing that "the role of Prasar Bharati becomes more vital for informing people about socially relevant issues, developmental efforts, and policies of the government and issues which are vital for the country. Prasar Bharati needs to exploit the unique advantage of terrestrial broadcasting for generating and transmitting local content."
Mukesh Sharma echoed this concern over a government channel's responsibility in response to the book's conclusion around satellite globalization and its impact on public interest. The following is an excerpt of his comments advocating a stronger role as a public broadcaster for Doordarshan.
"With the advent of digital TV and an explosion in the number of satellite channels, many argue that there is no need for public service broadcasting. A recent article in the Economist went straight to the point: 'increasingly public service broadcasters will have to compete with hundreds of new television channels. The world which has allowed public service broadcasting to flourish is disappearing'.
"We are now part of a new worldwide multi-billion-dollar industry, and the marketplace is vibrant with video merchants and mega-video merchants, creating and selling all kinds of values, principles, and programs. And as fast as they make it, TV will take it. Here quantity competes with quality.
"India is no different, and the television here is going through an identity crisis. The private channels here are aping the West and Doordarshan is aping the private channels. The announcement of Prasar Bharati brings a ray of hope to the uncontrolled, directionless television growth in the country as that of a public service broadcaster.
"At a conservative estimate, India has around 50 million TV sets. A license fee of Rs 300 (approximately $6.20) per set, per annum would general a revenue of around 1,500 crore (about $300 million) annually, which is double the advertising revenue collected by Doordarshan in the year l996. This does not mean that we should do away with the advertising on Doordarshan; the license fee gives us the freedom to be more selective and discerning as a public service broadcaster.
"The easiest way to collect the license fee in a huge country like India is to follow the method used in Singapore. The authorities, by the stroke of an ordinance, decided to implement a license fee on all TV owning households. In case one did not own a TV set, merely an affidavit was required. The fee could be collected through the electric bill, either twice yearly or annually as is practiced in Mauritius. One or two percent service charges could be paid to the electricity department so as to do away with a new generation of manpower and paperwork.
"I am of the opinion that over the coming decades, public service broadcasting (in our case Prasar Bharati) will become more, not less, important. First, it will not be replaced by dozens of viable minority interest services, and it will remain a major engine of providing budgets for new rather than recycled or imported programs.
"The duty of public service television is to put quality first, and to promote pluralism because it increases the quality of programming." TBS
SOURCE:http://www.tbsjournal.com/Archives/Spring01/fine.html
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