Govt earns Rs 6.70 bn till Oct from TV channels

MUMBAI: The government earned Rs 6.70 billion of revenues in the seven months ended 31 October from television channels including Doordarshan.

Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Ministry sources said a major share of the revenue had come as fee from the private TV channels.

The government earned Rs 1.74 billion from private FM channels and All India Radio (AIR) during this seven-month period, a source said.

In 2011-12, the revenue from television channels for the government was Rs 11.55 billion, four per cent more than Rs 11.12 billion in 2010-11. In 2009-10, it was Rs 10.07 billion.

The total revenue earned by the government from television channels from April 2009 to October 2012 amounted to Rs 39.45 billion.

The government?s income from radio channels in the previous year ended 31 March 2012 stood at Rs 3.57 billion, 2.5 per cent more than Rs 3.48 billion in 2010-11. In 2009-10, the revenue from radio channels was Rs 3 billion.

The total revenue earned from radio channels since April 2009 amounts to Rs 11.8 billion.

Meanwhile, the ministry sources said AIR has been making sustained efforts to increase its revenue. This includes changing its fixed point chart at regular intervals to include popular programmes so as to attract more advertisements and commercials, and broadcasting more interactive, customised and channel driving programmes.

An effort is also being made by AIR to have dedicated time slots for specific target audiences like women and children, youth, rural communities, music lovers, industrial workers, and farmers. Transmission hours too have been extended in some cases to accommodate commercials and radio is entering into more media partnerships to brand AIR.

The programme pattern of AIR stations ? particularly FM channels ? has been changed and made more listener-friendly to attract more buyers from the corporate sectors, and frequent audience research surveys are being undertaken to understand the views of the listeners.

However, the ministry sources made it clear that AIR was a public service broadcaster and, therefore, the aim was not to compete with other electronic media.