MUMBAI: The national broadcaster Doordarshan is leaving no stone unturned to ensure that it begins the CAS (conditional access system) era with an advantage and capitalises on the opportunities presented by CAS.
On 14 June 2003, Doordarshan (DD) director general Dr SY Quraishi announced that DD has gone private with the Saturday Hindi feature film prime time slot. Creative Channel, a Delhi-based company, has bagged the mandate of marketing this slot that was hitherto marketed by NFDC (till March 2003).
Creative Channel, promoted by Babbar Chopra, also markets Malayalam films on DD Trivandrum.
Speaking to indiantelevision.com, Chopra says: "This is the first time we have taken a prime time Hindi film slot on DD National Network. We shall aggressively procure the latest titles; as well as good commercial and meaningful cinema.The market conditions are favourable and we expect to rope in major advertisers such as HLL, Dabur, Paras, Reckitt & Coleman."
Creative Channel has bagged the mandate for one year. The list of titles obtained by Creative Channel includes recent films such as Hum Tum Pe Marte Hain, Jeans, Yeh Tera Ghar Yeh Mera Ghar amongst others. Creative Channel has branch offices in Mumbai, Trivandrum and other major metros.
Addressing a press meet on 14 June at Mumbai's Sun-n Sand Hotel, DD DG SY Quraishi said: "We feel that we can lure viewers will film programming. We have developed several film slots - for instance, the Friday and Saturday night slots. Recently, we have aired several new films - Road (20 June), Dum, Shool, Bandhan, Hera Pheri, Daag - The Fire, Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa, Anari No 1.
We shall also have film festivals - say a Govinda or a Raj Kapoor film festival. The growing TRPs (nearly 15-20 per cent over various target groups) of feature films shown on DD in the last seven or eight months shows that we are on the right track and viewers are lapping up the fare. However, we shall not shy away from the fact that our viewers would also want different fare - be it old films or meaningful art cinema or cross-over films."
Creative Channel organised the event in Mumbai on 14 June 2003 and invited several ad agency planners and buyers. Media consultancy firm Mideas made a presentation on the advantages of including DD in media plans and also the opportunities in various slots.
