NEW DELHI: Kisan TV, earlier slated for formal launch on Baisakhi Day - 14 April, is now expected to go live in the third week of April.
Kisan TV is a 24-hour channel devoted to farmers and rural India.
DD sources said that the channel may now be launched on 21 April. This is because Prime Minister Narendra Modi will not be in the country on Baisakhi Day. Sources also told Indiantelevision.com that a trial run had already commenced but a formal soft launch may come within the next few days.
Initial plans were to launch the channel, which is to be run by Doordarshan, on 14 January (Makar Sankranti Day).
A corpus of Rs 100 crore had been set aside in July last year in the Budget. However, this year’s budget showed an allocation of Rs 90 crore for the same in 2015-16.
Meanwhile, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology, which also examines issues linked to Information and Broadcasting Ministry said in a recent report that emphasis should be laid on local dialect on a regional basis so that farmers all across the country are able to access the channel in their local language/dialect, thereby getting benefited by this laudable initiative of the government. DD sources had earlier told this website that the content on DD Kisan will be in Hindi with regional dubbing.
The members appreciated the decision to launch a channel for farmers and said it would await efficacy of the channel in delivering utility services to the target groups.
The Committee noted that the Empowered Finance Committee (EFC) Memo pertaining to the launch of the channel was under finalization for circulation to appraisal agencies and the process is on for content identification.
Noting that the proposed Doordarshan Kisan is a dedicated channel for the farmers to give them information targeted to address the wholesome edutainment needs of a farmer to adopt and adapt to modern scenario, the national broadcaster had in early December invited proposals for programmes under the Self Financing Commissioned (SFC) Scheme.
As per DD sources, the content expected for DD Kisan will primarily address the developmental needs of the farmer addressing ‘Core Agriculture’, ‘Critical Support’ and ‘Essential Ancillary’ areas, keeping in mind the varied Agro-Economic Zones, Climatic Areas, Different Crops and the need to address the target audience spread across various states but will have to be entertaining and engaging.
The genres for which it invited proposals are: Documentaries/Features (Field Based); Magazines/Docu Dramas (Field Based); Cookery Shows/Biographies; Daily Soap/Fiction Serials/Family Serials/Thrillers; film song based programmes; Reality Shows/Game Shows; and Mandi Bhav/Bazar Bhav/Agro Based Bulletins.
In addition, DD Kisan will have a new segment for iconic characters plus content packaging where animation characters will convey the agricultural themes and desired messaging. It is expected that the participants under this category will also provide layouts of the channel’s packaging.
It will also have a segment for edited feature films where the entire film will be capsuled with anchor-based presentation for 60 minutes.
Prasar Bharati will also take inputs from different agricultural universities and institutes to develop rich content for the channel and the same would be disseminated among the farmers.
