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The Union Minister for Information & Broadcasting, Shri S. Jaipal Reddy has said that there exists across the spectrum consensus on the autonomy of public broadcasters. He said his government continues to be guided by Pt. Nehru’s policy of having no control on mass media. He was speaking at the launch of Commission Serial “Jazba”, a joint production of Doordarshan Empanelled Producer’s Association & Media Vision. He said that private sector has a vital role to play but in certain sectors public sectors role cannot be overlooked.
Shri Reddy said that public funds would have to be made available to Prasar Bharati as it was required to perform various roles, which would not be taken up by its competitors from the private sector. He said Doordarshan was the only Television agency to cover Olympic Sports for which it has incurred a loss of nearly Rs.20 crores.
Reiterating the need to make Prasar Bharati financially independent, he said the need was to work towards a political consensus for providing a mechanism, which would end Prasar Bharati’s dependence on government for expenditure. He said all government departments should make it a point to pay public broadcasters for highlighting their programmes & initiatives.
He said the public broadcasters on its part should further strengthen its marketing network and in-house production capacities to reduce cost of production and improving revenue from advertisements.
Speaking at the occasion Shri K.S. Sharma, CEO, Prasar Bharati, said efforts were on to strengthen marketing network. Six Divisions have been set up all over the country and ad-revenue on DD-I during the first five months of the year has doubled as compared to the corresponding period last year. He said the public sector was proposing to introduce digital magazine shortly.
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