Doordarshan owes over Rs 60 crores to producers

National broadcaster Doordarshan is learnt to have not made payments to the producers of its commissioned programmes over the past several months even as it grapples with policy changes to acquire new content for its channels.

Sources stated that while a delay of three months is allowed — as per the contract provisions of credit agreement — the payments have been stuck for almost five months above that period.

It is understood that Doordarshan’s national channel and Kisan channel have not made payments of over Rs 60 crore to several private producers and production companies commissioned for creating content for these channels. It is understood that the last payment to most of these SFC producers was in December last year.

However, sources in the national broadcaster claimed that the payments to producers are likely to be released soon. “Bills for January and February are being processed and payments are likely to be made soon,” sources added.

The national broadcaster has been commissioning programmes under the self-financed commissioned (SFC) mode for the past several years.

It is understood that the national broadcaster seems unsure of generating content through the commissioning mode that was in prevalence till now and has been toying with the idea of introducing a slot sale scheme.

Sources stated that the undue delay in making these payments is also in part due to Prasar Bharati’s attempts at changing the mode of securing content for its channels. Over the past few months, Prasar Bharati’s slot sale method has turned out to be a failure — with none of the production houses qualifying for participating in the e-auction under the eligibility criteria as prescribed in the RFP.

This paper had on July 27 reported that Prasar Bharati Board had approved a move to invite fresh proposals under the slot sale policy for Doordarshan with relaxed norms for acquisition of content.