New Delhi: Taking a cue from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s regional outreach efforts in his policy initiatives, the national broadcaster, Doordarshan, has also decided to reach out to the masses. The regional centres would now focus on showcasing state news and business events, create programmes on regional heroes, folklore, achievers and success stories while also giving platform to local artists.
“The attempt is to reconnect with regional audiences. The emphasis will be on regional news, business news focusing on the states and introducing programmes on regional heroes, folklore, achievers and success stories,” said Doordarshan director general Supriya Sahu.
New shows on cuisine, travelogues and celebrity chat shows will also be introduced to make a regional connect. Regional DD kendras have also been asked to facilitate new and fresh talent through crowd-sourcing and revamped audition process, the DG added.
In the wake of the demonetisation and its effects, the plan is also to introduce digital literacy shows and business news focusing on the states. While there will also be more regional news inputs from relatively far off districts which were so far not being covered on a regular basis, sources added.
As part of the effort to go regional, the national broadcaster has decided to hold workshops with various regional Doordarshan kendras in a phased manner to help evolve and improve their content, sources added.
While the workshop for northern and western region has concluded, similar exercise for southern kendras will be held on April 15 at Puducherry and for the Northeast kendras in May, sources added.
With Doordarshan claiming to have a reach of more than 90 per cent of the Indian population through a network of more than 1,416 terrestrial transmitters, the attempt to go regional is expected to set it again towards the path of increasing TRPs and revenues, sources added.
In an effort to generate more revenue, the kendras have been asked to simplify the accreditation of agencies and registration. Regional centres have also been asked to simplifying rate cards and make them realistic and contemporary, sources said.
