Slots unsold, Doordarshan to go for fresh bids

The Prasar Bharati Board on Tuesday approved a move to invite fresh proposals under the slot sale policy for Doordarshan with relaxed norms for acquisition of content after none of the private production houses found eligible for participating in the e-auction for its prime time slots.

This newspaper had on July 15 reported that the national broadcaster is expected to relax norms for companies in an effort to generate content for Doordarshan. It is understood that Prasar Bharati has relaxed the requirement for the production house to have produced at least 300 hours of Hindi general entertainment programming to only 200 hours in the last two calendar years. Additionally, the requirement of television and film production a turnover of at least Rs 5 crores per annum in each of the last 3 financial years has been relaxed to Rs 3 crore.

It is learnt that the board examined issues related to the implementation of the slot sale policy in detail and it was felt that a fresh request for proposals should be issued which aims to invite “more variety” in content and “wider participation from production houses. Sources stated that Doordarshan may soon issue fresh request for proposals for selected slots on its national channel.

The national broadcaster was unable to secure private production houses despite revising the last date for submission of proposals to July 4 from earlier deadline of June 27.

The policy was cleared as it was felt that Doordarshan’s major hit series like Ramayana, Mahabharat, Hum Log, Buniyaad and Chandrakanta were produced through the slot sale method.

The slot sale method has proved to be a non starter, despite Prasar Bharati’s decision to introduce a one time amnesty scheme for blacklisted production houses and producers.

Under the policy — cleared a few months ago by the board — it was decided that Doordarshan would auction prime time slots, between 7-11 p.m. from Monday to Friday, on its national channel.

As per the new policy, producers would provide content in return for a share in the advertising revenue. Some hours for Saturdays and Sundays were also offered under the slot sale policy.