Despite fetching poor TRPs, revenues, no show was taken off air by DD: RTI reply

Despite fetching constant poor Television Rating Points (TRPs) and low revenues, public service broadcaster Doordarshan has not pulled a single show off air, nor has it penalised any producer, thus resulting in massive losses, an RTI reply has stated.

A reply to an RTI query filed by broadcast professional Amitabh Gautam states that if any serial commissioned under the self financed commissioned (SFC) scheme does not perform well, a caution letter is first issued to the producer to improve the quality of programme, failing which DD reserves the right to terminate the contract and take the programme off air. dna has a copy of the RTI reply.

However, despite the guidelines, no programme was taken off the air, even though all of them faring poorly under the SFC scheme, thus allowing Doordarshan to make heavy losses.

Latest documents accessed by dna show that DD -- in terms of viewership – is in the 13th position among the list of all channels. The BARC data also shows that DD bettered its rank by coming down to the fourth position for two weeks in between, but only when sports content was shown instead of the serials.

The data also reveals when the top general entertainment channel (GEC) fetches a gross viewership of approx 7,500 lakhs, DD's maximum viewership of serials has recorded at a mere 100 lakh approx, which makes it clear that DD's serials are not even comparable with smaller GECs like & TV, Zee Anmol, Star Utsav among others.

The documents also show that the serials commissioned by DD under the current SFC scheme in 2015-16 for its prime time and mid prime time slots have led to losses of approximately Rs162 crore, if the slot sale income and pay out revenue is considered.

Even the recent balance sheet filed by Prasar Bharati shows that during the FY 2015-16 DD's revenue has dipped down by Rs309 crore and the same was answered by the I & B minister in the monsoon session last week.

For instance, in case of IPS Diary, a 156-episode prime time show in DD, the amount paid to the producer was Rs4.27 crore against which the Doordarshan could generate only Rs0.6 crore, leading to losses of Rs3.67 crore.

Similarly, another example is a show called Albeli Kahaani Pyaar Ki, a prime time show, where the producer pay out was Rs7.28 crore, against which Doordarshan could recover only Rs3.32 crore, lead to losses worth Rs3.96 crore. Mashaal, another prime time serial incurred losses worth Rs0.97 crore.

Interestingly, all three of these serials were launched with much fanfare by DD in October last year, and commissioned under the SFC scheme.

Under the SFC scheme, DD had to acquire serials by paying producers first and then recover the cost through ad revenue. Almost in all shows commissioned by DD under this scheme, the public service broadcaster failed to recover the money spent on shows, leading to severe losses.

To counter the losses, Prasar Bharati has been trying to implement its new slot sale policy, in place of the SFC scheme, where the producers will have to buy slots from Doordarshan, instead of DD paying them. However, the implementation of the policy is facing several hurdles after the applications of seven bidders were rejected by an internal committee, citing them as incomplete.

When dna contacted additional director general of Doordarshan PK Subhash, he said that DD is in the process of implementing TRP-related cuts from the payments of producers, whose shows have failed to generate revenues. He, however, did not specify which shows have been penalised.