A formal request to this effect will soon be sent to the ministry.
Public broadcaster Prasar Bharati has sought funds to the tune of Rs250 crore from the Information and Broadcasting (I&B) ministry for digitising the huge archival content of Doordarshan and All India Radio, including prominent speeches of national leaders, popular programmes and music.
A formal request to this effect will soon be sent to the ministry. The need for preserving the valuable archives –including the important historical events of the country—by digitising them and the cost required for the process was highlighted in a recent presentation on Prasar Bharati made to the I&B ministry.
Prasar Bharati has content worth an estimated four lakh hours which are as old as the year 1947. Doordarshan central archives itself has over a lakh tapes. However, most of the content being stored in old formats such AMPEX, Beta, DVC, VHS, among others which are prone to irreversible damages. Officials admitted that several valuable content may also have been stolen, of which there is no certain record.
A senior official from Prasar Bharati said that the public service broadcaster is in the process of framing a content syndication policy which will enable it monetise its valuable content by selling it to other countries, thus earning revenues for the public service broadcaster, or made freely available to the public.
"The rates depending on the content and the country where it would be sold and the copyright issues are currently being worked out in the policy," the official said.
Indian shows are hugely popular in neighbouring countries like Indonesia and Sri Lanka, who regularly buy rights of shows from private Indian channels.
Currently, Prasar Bharati has does not have an organised record of their archived content.
AIR and DD have both initiated the process of digitising its archived records. Prasar Bharati officials said that once the ministry sanctions the funds, the full content can be digitised sooner. "Digitised content will be easier to put online for sale," an official said.
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