DD losing revenue to private TV channels

Girja Shankar Kaura

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 19

National broadcaster Doordarshan (DD) is losing great amount of revenue as it competes with a large number of private channels which have piggy-backed it on its “Freedish” which was launched ostensibly to take its channels to the masses through the Direct-to-Home (DTH) mode.

Reports said private broadcasters, while paying an average of about Rs 6-8 crore per annum to DD-Freedish are now earning Rs 500-700 crore per channel in advertising revenue due to the high reach obtained via DD-Direct while relegating DD channels to the category of unwatched channels. This has resulted in DD losing hundreds of crores in its own potential advertising revenue.

A review of ratings of channels on DD-Freedish indicates that the ratings of Doordarshan are not even 10% of the ratings of the private broadcasters.

The top rated 15 channels on DD-Freedish platform have ratings which range from 50-80 and almost all of them are private TV channels. The DD channels languish at ratings of zero to three meaning that the DD channels are going unwatched, a reason for them to lose out on advertising revenue, as they are dependent on viewership ratings.

Sources pointed out that the cause of DD is being sold out to private channels for a pitiful revenue of about Rs 98 crore (2014-15), Rs 180 crore (2015-15) and Rs 275 crore (2016-17) barely covering the expenses.

On the other hand, the loss per channel to DD is unmeasured, but is estimated at over Rs 700-Rs 800 crore.

However, private broadcasters by paying merely about Rs 200 crore as carriage fee collectively are earning about Rs 2,000 crore as advertisement revenue from their Free-To-Air channels.

Moreover, private broadcasters leverage their respective FTA channels on the DD-Freedish platform to promote the programming of their pay channels at no cost to the broadcaster and no financial benefits accruing to Prasar Bharati in the form of potential advertisement revenue.

DD-Freedish was launched in 2002 to ensure maximum access and reach of all the DD channels across TV households in the country, including rural and remote areas after the private broadcasters refused to carry the DD channels for a price.

Incidentally, DD has been running on huge grants from the government and in 2014-15 about Rs 2,400 crore was given to it as an aid.

According to Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) India, DD National no longer finds a place among the 10 most-watched Hindi general entertainment channels in the urban and rural viewership matrix.

Among the top three channels in the rural markets are Zee Anmol, Sony Pal and Star Utsav. In 2015, DD National garnered 115 million impressions on an average, according to BARC India, while the most-viewed television channels like Star Plus, Colors and Zee TV, on an average, command anywhere between 400 million and 700 million impressions every year.