Minutes of 124th PBB meeting held at 10.30 AM on 26th November, 2014 in the Conference Room of Prasar Bharati Secretariat, New Delhi

Present:

Dr. A. Surya Prakash, Chairman, PBB Shri Jawhar Sircar, Chief Executive Officer Shri J.S. Mathur, AS MIB, & Nominated Member Prof. S.K. Barua, Member, Prasar Bharati Board Shri Muzaffar Ali, Member, Prasar Bharati Board Smt Vijayalaxmi Chhabra, DG, Doordarshan Shri F Sheheryar, DG, All India Radio Special Invitees

E-in-C, DD DG DD News Shri Mayank Agarwal, ADG News, DD Shri V K Jain, ADG (Arch), DD ADG (IR&E), PBS ADG (F), PBS Shri Amitabh Shukla, ADG AIR Shri C. K. Jain DDG DD

In Attendance

Brig. V.A.M. Hussain, Principal Adviser (P&A), PB Ms. Aparna Vaish, ADG (Ops), PBS Shri R.K. Jain, Adviser (T), PBS Shri Shantanu Sen, OSD (Ops & Coord.) At the outset, CEO welcomed the new Chairperson Dr. A Surya

Prakash, who took charge on 29th October, 2014.

1.2. Chairperson, in his opening remarks, noted that the current

Board was a depleted one with vacancies of four part-time Members

and two full-time Members. He expressed the hope that these

positions would be filled up very soon and that at its next meeting the

Board could possibly be in full strength. He further said that,

while he would have liked to have the full Board in place, but,

decisions on some urgent matters had to be taken, and hence this

meeting had to be called.

1.3. Chairperson further mentioned that he had had extensive

interaction with people from within the organisation, and based on

that and his observations, he reposed faith in Prasar Bharati and its

pool of talent & resources, and therefore the potential that existed for

its revival. He said that as Chairperson of the Board, he would

make every possible attempt to urgently resolve various outstanding

issues of the organisation, especially Prasar Bharati’s relationship with

Government, so that it may deliver on its mandate as enshrined in the

Prasar Bharati Act.

2. Ratification of Minutes of 123rd Meeting of Prasar Bharati

Board held on 18th September 2014. (Agenda A-1)

2.1. CEO drew attention of the Board Members to the minutes of

123rd meeting for their comments.

2.2. Attention was drawn to comments received from DG DD

pointing out the inadvertent non-inclusion of Episodic Price Table

in para 6.1.9 of the minutes where, inter-alia, approval of the Board

to DD’s SFC guidelines was mentioned. It was proposed to include the

same in the minutes. The Board ratified minutes of the 123rd Board

Meeting including the correction in para 6.1.9 mentioned by DG DD,

which shall now read as follows:

6.1.9. The Board approved the revised guidelines for AFP, RSM and SFC with the changes proposed by DG DD as placed in Annexure-25, 28 and 29 respectively, subject to incorporation of the views of the Board on the matter of sharing of Government revenue under RSM as expressed in para 6.1.8 above, as also the Episodic Price Table (para C of Agenda C-1) of the SFC Guidelines of DD National.

3. Decisions taken by the Committees of the Board and Related Issues (Agenda A-2)

3.1. Drawing attention of the Board to the current composition of the

ESCR, CEO mentioned that his position as chairman of this

committee was creating logistical difficulties, as meetings are called

very often at short notice due to urgency of decisions needed in the

matter of telecast of sports events and rights related matters. He

mentioned that due to his extremely busy schedule, compounded by

the fact that PB was without full-time Member (Finance) and Member

(Personnel) for several months now, it was proving to be challenging

for him to be present at ECSR meetings, which was ultimately coming

in the way of smooth conduct of these meetings.

3.2. CEO requested the Board for its approval for the ECSR to be

chaired by Nominated Member in place of CEO for the present,

with immediate effect. The Board approved the proposal.

3.3. The Board also took note of the decisions taken by the ECSR in

its meetings held on 24th Sept., 2014 and 28th October, 2014 gave its

assent for them to be taken on record.

4. Action Taken Report on Decision emanating from 123rd

Board meeting held on 18th September, 2014 4.1. VividhBharati on FM in Four Metros (A-3, S.No.1) 4.1.1. DG AIR informed the Board that Vividh Bharati services on

FM in New Delhi will soon be launched by HMIB and similar services

for Mumbai and Chennai would be inaugurated by MOS, I&B very

shortly.

4.2 Policy for one-time Settlement of Arbitration cases (A-3, S.No.2) 4.2.1. CEO informed the Board that all details, including

summary of 12 Arbitration cases, as sought by MIB, had already been

sent to Ministry on 3rd November, 2014. Nominated Member informed

that a draft Cabinet Note is required to be sent to the Ministry for

further action and since an early submission in the matter was desired,

Chairman may like to brief the present Minister on the

background of the long-pending matter.

4.3 Honouring National Artistes

(A-3, S.No. 3(A) Archival Series on National Artistes (A-3, S.No. 3(B) 4.3.1. Chairperson welcomed the initiative of Prasar Bharati for

honouring eminent music artistes with the Award. He suggested

that it may be appropriate to make this an annual event honouring

more and more artistes each year, who met with the criteria devised

by the Board.

4.3.2. Chairperson felt that the award ceremony for the 52 artistes

already identified could be staggered over two separate events, and

that to begin with, the award function this year may honour the senior-

most of the artistes, and the others could be similarly honoured next

year. This way, PB would be able to ensure there is no over-crowding

at the function, and each of the 52 artistes - who are eminent

performers in their respective disciplines – could be honoured in a

manner befitting their stature.

4.3.3. The Board agreed that artistes who qualify as per the pre-

revised criteria and were the senior-most, both in terms of age and

their position in top grade of AIR, would be honoured in the first

ceremony, and the remaining artistes would be honoured in the

subsequent ceremony which would be held in the next financial

year.

4.3.4. The Board applauded the idea of an Archival Series on

National Artistes, as it would create valuable content for PB.

4.4. Archives Marketing (A-3, S.No. 4(A)) Archive Web Portal (A-3, S.No. 4(B)) Archives Digitisation & Management

(A-3, S.No. 4(C))

Opening up of Archives for Research Purposes (A-3, S.No. 4(D))

4.4.1. CEO informed the Chairperson that, based on discussions held

in earlier Board meetings, an RFP has been finalised for the

identification and selection of global entities who would help PB

identify, curate, re-purpose and market the price-less archival content

in its possession. He also mentioned that the RFP, finalised after legal

vetting by Prasar Bharati’s Legal Counsel, was placed at Annexure-45

for consideration of Board.

4.4.2. CEO also informed that, as advised by PB’s National Group on

Archive Marketing (NGAM), a separate RFP (now placed at

Annexure-46) had been designed to entrust the work of creating a

dedicated archives Web Portal to a specialist agency. He explained

that the web portal would feature select material from Prasar Bharati

Archives for ‘no-profit’ dissemination as well as for sale. Board

resolved that a certain category of archival material (for instance

speeches of National Leaders, etc.) should not be monetized, but

should be disseminated at most at a nominal price which would

cover the cost of production and distribution. In case such cost of

production/distribution was more than nominal, the pricing decision

would be referred Prasar Bharati/Board.

4.4.3. Chairperson sought to know from ADG (Archives), Shri

V K Jain, if he (Chairman) could be separately briefed on the salient

points of the two RFPs. CEO then desired that ADG (Archives) Shri

V K Jain may make a presentation to Chairperson at the earliest on

both the RFPs to apprise him of PB’s objectives on both fronts.

Chairperson proposed that ADG (Archives) may also circulate the

two RFPs to all Board Members and a final decision on this be

taken within two months.

4.4.4. CEO informed that discussions on the matter of Archives

Marketing and Monetisation had been going on for a long time and PB

has not been able to take a final decision in the matter because details

on the initiative had been sought by the Ministry. Only recently Ministry

wrote back advising PB to take its own decision in the matter.

4.4.5. Nominated Member made a point that perhaps operational

issues like these were not needed to be brought to the Board or put up

to the Ministry, and that decisions on such issues could be taken by

Prasar Bharati. CEO stated that PB feels quite constrained in its

operational decision making on account of repeated queries from the

Ministry on almost every matter as to whether these decisions had

been duly approved by the Board. In this context, he mentioned

delays in the National Artistes decision, as well as details sought

by MIB with regard to Archival Marketing decision of Prasar

Bharati.

4.4.6. In respect of Web Portal on National Leaders, it was

decided that the list of leaders to be featured on the website may be

suitably broadened by DG DD to include (i) Prime Ministers of India;

and (ii) other National Leaders. The Board desired that these be made

ready at the earliest.

4.4.7. Chairperson welcomed the initiative of opening up

Prasar Bharati archives (AIR & DD) for research purposes as that

would give genuine researchers the opportunity to peruse the valuable

content available in DD & AIR archive and benefit from them. Their

research papers would further bring out in public domain the invaluable

contributions of DD and AIR.

4.5. DD National: Falling Viewership/Revenue and Options for Content Sourcing (A-3, S.No.5)

4.5.1. It was informed by DG DD that revised guidelines for

content sourcing (as approved by the Board in its 123rd meeting) had

been notified on the DD website. She further informed that as an

immediate step fresh content was introduced both in DD National

mid-prime and prime-time along with a new look and feel with the

tagline ‘Kuchh Trendy Kuchh Traditional – Desh Ka Apna Channel’’. DD

was taking steps to promote the new content through extensive cross-

channel publicity and through an ad campaign in leading newspapers.

4.5.2. The Board was informed that DD was now in the process of

addressing a major weakness in content sourcing, which was regular

monitoring of production and weekly ratings, so as to ensure quality

control. DG DD informed the Board some top grade producers (who are

producing top-rated serials on private GECs) were invited for an

interaction under the chairmanship of HMIB on 12.11.2014. This was a

successful meeting, where the producers frankly shared their concerns

in associating with DD, in terms of relatively low payout in comparison

to what they get from private channels, and issues related to co-

sharing of content IPR. The Board was informed that DD had already

taken corrective steps by adding programme categories with higher

pay-outs in the Production Rate Card for SFC programmes. This was

approved in the last meeting. It was mentioned that due consideration

would be given to the point raised on the matter of co-sharing of

content IPR but DD’s interests are to be safeguarded. DG DD informed

that DD had already advertised genre-wise programme requirement for

DD National and it was expected that good proposals from some of

the top producers would start coming in shortly.

4.5.3. CEO interjected and informed the Board Members that,

despite all the steps being taken, revenue of DD National and, as a

result, that of the entire DD network was showing an alarming decline.

DG DD confirmed that as of date there was a Rs. 100 crore shortfall

compared to the corresponding period of the previous financial year.

CEO mentioned that based on current trends, DD would probably

report a revenue of Rs. 1100 crore this FY, which would be almost Rs.

300 crore lower than that of last year. He further mentioned that this

decline was on account of fall in both Government as well as Corporate

revenue. While CRD under the leadership of new DG was making

every attempt to raise corporate revenue, Prasar Bharati had sought

the intervention of MIB in making an all-out effort to convince

Ministries and Government departments to raise or maintain their ad-

spend on the public broadcaster. He expressed his disappointment on

the follow-up action taken by Ministry, which, he felt, was not strong

enough to elicit a positive response from the Government sector.

4.5.4. Chairman then said that he would personally meet the

concerned Ministers and initiate discussions with their Ministries to push

for higher Government investment in DD& AIR.

4.5.5. CEO submitted that in spite of all the steps that have

been and are being taken, revival of DD ultimately hinges on its ability

to bring about visible improvement in content, which would not be

possible without commensurate spending. He drew attention of the

Board to the fact that the current situation that DD finds itself in was

on account of content decisions taken over the last one year, for

which the Board had mandated a scrutiny. A Committee had looked

into all such decisions to identify infirmities, if any, and its report had

been forwarded to vigilance for further necessary action. CEO

appreciated the keen interest that the current government has

favoured Prasar Bharati with, but felt that it would have to be backed

by the required financial support, if DD was to be revived. He

requested Chairperson to intervene with Ministry on behalf of Prasar

Bharati, drawing attention to two points (i) this year, the

Government support for content creation under Revenue Plan has

been reduced from Rs. 80 crore to Rs. 20 crore; and (ii) PB cannot

supplement from its IEBR on account of shortfall of Rs. 282 crore,

which had been diverted from IEBR over the last two years to pay

salaries of Government servants on assurance of refund by the

Government. Since the amount is not yet refunded, PB, is unable

to spend on the much needed content revival of the network.

Further, even for this financial year, no assurance has been

received yet on a similar shortage of Rs. 310 crore for salaries,

which would not only put further pressure on IEBR, but PB may

be unable to pay salary for March, 2015.

4.5.6. Chairman sought to know the reasons for this from the

Nominated Member, who replied that Government had sought

clarifications and details of Government employees with Prasar

Bharati. Since the details have been received only the previous

day in the format desired by the Ministry, the same would now be

forwarded to Department of Expenditure as desired.

4.5.7. CEO observed that it was really strange that such

questions on verification of employees’ records were being sought,

something that had never happened in the entire history of Prasar

Bharati. He informed the Board that all details sought have been

provided, despite the fact that these records are already available

with the Ministry since the employees in question had been

transferred to Prasar Bharati on deemed deputation from Government.

Secondly, it was inconceivable that pay bills being raised by

Prasar Bharati would be on account of any expense other than

the actual salaries and salary related expenditure of Government

servants.

4.5.8. Board Member, Shri Muzaffar Ali interjected stating that

while drawing up a content revival plan, DD would be well

advised to refer to the Pitroda Committee recommendations on this

subject, which didn’t appear to be the case at present. He wondered

why the Board has not been informed on the outcome of the

Pitroda Committee recommendations and whether they had been at

all accepted by the Government in part or full, considering the fact

that a lot of experts, from across various sectors of the broadcast

industry, had deliberated at length and had come up with

meaningful suggestions for the revival of Prasar Bharati.

4.5.9. Chairperson sought to know from Nominated Member as

to the current status of Pitroda Committee report and if the

Government has accepted the recommendations. He suggested that a

separate meeting of the Board may be called purely to deliberate on

its recommendations.

4.6. Revival of DD’s Regional Network (A-3, S.No.6)

4.6.1. Regarding the revival of DD’s Regional Network, the

Board took note of the fact that in the South, the terrestrial

viewership of DD had been almost totally wiped out and that in

the rest of the country too, the performance of DD regionals left

much to be desired. It was reiterated that the only option for coming

out of the situation was re-positioning of DD channels with common

content strategy.

4.6.2. DG DD mentioned that while similar efforts to revitalise

the regional channels were being made through procuring content

enabled by the revised content sourcing guidelines, channels were

also being encouraged to draw appropriate content from the National

Resource Exchange Pool (NREP) in addition to their in-house

production. She mentioned, that here too, content funding was a

major bottleneck.

4.7. New DD India Channel for Europe & West Asia (A-3, S.No.7)

4.7.1. Board took note of PB’s efforts to involve MEA, MoIA,

Tourism Ministry etc. in drawing up a focussed content strategy for the

new DD India channel which is now in a position to reach 120 million

households in Europe and West Asia.

4.7.2 Chairperson was of the view that since PB’s efforts in

co-opting other ministries has not yielded the desired outcome, DD

should go ahead, as proposed in the Annexure 7, and plan an

appropriate FPC keeping in mind the target countries and viewers.

4.7.3. Board approved the proposed SFC guidelines and rate

card for DD India and decided that the target date for the launch of

this channel should be planned for January 8, 2015 coinciding with

the Pravasi Bhartiya Diwas.

4.8. Self-Financing of Technology- Leveraging of Assets (A-3, S.No.9)

4.8.1 CEO informed the Board that there has been no progress in the

Asset Monetization proposal of PB and that the final decision on

whether to proceed, and modalities thereof were to be decided

entirely by the Government, for which directions are awaited from the

Ministry.

4.8.2. Chairperson mentioned that monetization of idle assets of

Prasar Bharati and leveraging them for ensuring financial self-

sufficiency of the organization was critical to guaranteeing autonomy

and was a proposal that must be pursued actively. He desired that

he may be briefed on all aspects of the issue and that separate

meetings on the subject were required with the Ministry, which he

would initiate.

4.9. Restructuring of Engineering Activities: Creation of TSP and DCW

(A-3, S.No. 10) 4.9.1. The Board took note of the action reported.

4.10. Total FM-isation& Optimisation of AIR (A-3, S.No. 11)

4.10.1 The Board took note of the action reported.

4.11. Delegation of Power of Prasar Bharati (A-3, S.No. 12)

4.11.1. Chairperson said that in his view, this was a genuine need

expressed by Prasar Bharati, to allow an autonomous organisation

like PB, the flexibility to send its personnel on essential

deputations abroad for enhancement of their skills and to give them

the exposure to new trends and technologies, etc.

4.11.2. With regard to the specific issue, placed at Annexure-

12, Chairperson said that there was an urgent need to resolve the

issue and that he would personally talk to the Minister on the subject.

4.12 Subscription to news agencies by AIR and DD News (A-3, S.No. 13) 4.12.1. With regard to inter-linked issues of PTI subscription and

premises rental, revival of UNI, and engagement of news agencies

like Hindustan Samachar etc., CEO proposed that Chairperson may

take a fresh look on the entire matter in its entirety, based on his vast

experience in the field of journalism.

4.13. Cadre Review of various cadres (A-3, S.No. 14)

4.13.1. Board approved the proposal to engage Dr. Syamal Sarkar,

former Secretary, DoPT, and agreed that this was an essential step to

resolve the long pending cadre reviews.

4.14. Auction of Hindi Feature Film Slot of Doordarshan (A-3, S.No.15) Making Available DD Channels to the people of Afghanistan (A-3, S.No. 16) Channel packaging of DD Channels (A-3, S.No. 17) Engaging Shri Amlan Dasgupta etc. for Archiving Activities (A-3, S.No. 18) Review of Music Audition Guidelines of AIR (A-3, S.No. 19)

24x7 HD/SD Plug and Play connectivity from 7 RCR to DD/AIR studio centre (A-3, S.No.20) Corporate Guarantee to BARC, and Allocation of Funds for new Technology to be used by BARC (A-3, S.No.21) Proposal to outsource Social Media Activities (A-3, S.No. 22) Final order received from Service Tax Commissioner, Delhi for the year 2008-09 on account of short paid Service Tax (A-3, S.No. 23) Land Assignment of HPT Cochin (A-3, S.No. 24) Selection of National and Regional Sales heads

(A-3, S.No. 25) Creation of fresh panel of Casual RJS and Presenters for FM Rainbow/FM Gold channels of All India Radio (A-3, S.No. 26) Revenue Position and Strategy for Augmentation (A-3, S.No. 27) Internship policy (A-3) ARTEE issues

(A-3, S.No. 28) 4.14.1 Board took note of the action taken as reported in respect of

items at S. No. 15 to 28 above.

4.15. Service Related Issues (A-3, S.No. 29) 4.15.1. The Board took note of the action reported and approved

the proposal for retention of official accommodation and other

benefits by Principal Adviser (P&A) after release from Prasar Bharati

as detailed in Anenxure-17.

5. Points for Notification and Information (Agenda B)

5.1. Long-pending issues holding up steps to revive Prasar

Bharati (Agenda B-1) 5.1.1. CEO drew attention of the Board Members to 19

issues detailed in Agenda B-1, the resolution of which would go a

long way in the revival of the organisation. He further mentioned

that since almost all these issues have been brought to the notice

of Board Members in earlier meetings, therefore they have found

mention in specific reporting to the Board in the earlier sections

of the ATR. Although Board had already given its assent for resolution

of all these issues, CEO felt that it was necessary for these items

to remain in focus in order to facilitate an early resolution.

5.2. Content Related issues in J&K: Steps taken by Prasar

Bharati

(Agenda B-2)

5.2.1. While this item could not be taken up for detailed

discussion by the Board due to paucity of time, CEO drew attention

of Board Members to the fact that sufficient information has

already been gathered by the Board approved Special Audit Team,

and that DD needs to take urgent action as mentioned in para 7.7.

of the Agenda Note, and report progress to the Board separately.

5.3. Report on PB’s participation in ABU General Assembly

(Agenda B-3)

5.3.1. The Board took note of the developments reported in the

Report on PB’s participation in ABU General Assembly.

5.4. Technology Initiatives of Prasar Bharati

(Agenda B-4)

Update on Recruitment of 3542 critical posts

(Agenda B-5)

Commendation from J&K CM on AIR’s Role in Recent

Floods in the State

(Agenda B-6)

Damage Assessment due to Recent Floods in J&K and fire

in DDK, Panaji

(Agenda B-7)

DG’s coverage of National Games in Kerala

(Agenda B-8)

5.4.1. Board took note of developments reported against above

items.

6. Policy Issues

(Agenda –C)

6.1 Casual Assignees: Issues related to Demands for

Regularisation, etc.

(Agenda C-1)

Enhancement of Fees of Casual Assignees of DD (Left

Out Categories)

(Agenda E-1)

6.1.1. In continuation of discussions in earlier Board meetings on the

subject of casual engagements in AIR and DD, Board Members were

informed of the recent meeting of the Parliamentary Standing

Committee on Labour, wherein, PB had submitted that the large

number of casuals engaged by DD and AIR were necessitated

particularly due to the lack of recruitments and promotions in the

organisation over the last 20 years, because of absence of a

recruitment board. It was further explained to the Standing

Committee that, as the number of installations and responsibilities

had more than doubled, PB was compelled to engage casuals to

keep basic operations going.

6.1.2. The Board was apprised of the sentiments expressed by the

Standing Committee on Labour, which felt that PB should take

steps to regularise the casuals, preferably through permanent

Government service and also to ensure that PPF, CGHS and other

benefits are extended to them. CEO informed that he had submitted

before the Hon’ble Standing Committee that SSC was the only route

for regularisation and that PB had extended appropriate age relaxation

to casuals to enable them qualify to appear before the SSC recruitment

that had happened last year.

6.1.3. It had been submitted to the Standing Committee on

Labour that most of the casuals had failed to qualify for the SSC

selection despite the age relaxation. CEO, therefore, proposed that,

given the circumstances, and the directions of the Parliamentary

Standing Committee, PB may send the proposal for regularisation of

casuals to the Ministry for a final decision. The Board agreed that this

would be the most appropriate course under the circumstances.

6.1.4. Attention of the Board Members was drawn to a related

item, placed at Agenda E-1, which was a proposal to raise the fees of

a few categories of casuals which had been left out in the

enhancements given in 2012. Prof S. K. Barua desired to know the

reasons for non-enhancement of fees for these categories when the

fees of other categories had been hiked. DG DD explained that it was

most likely an inadvertent oversight. Nominated Member expressed his

concern on how PB would be able to fund the additional expenditure

on account of fee hike of casuals. CEO drew attention of Board

Members to the fact that while the demand for a fee hike may be

justified for reasons stated, yet PB is in a dire situation since the

sizeable pay-out to casuals was made from hard earned IEBR of

Prasar Bharati and not paid by Government as for other employees.

With a huge pressure on IEBR to meet the operational, administrative

and content related expenses of nearly 500 stations of AIR and DD,

which has become all the more acute due to cutback in Government

support, it was imperative for PB to raise its revenue earnings and to

economize all expenditure, particularly the sizeable outgo on account

of payment to casuals. In this regard, he pointed out that it was

essential to re-evaluate the casuals for their skills and to retain on the

panel only those who are proficient and were adding value to the

organisation. Prasar Bharati has been insisting for introduction of a

professional skill test and screening process, but this proposal has so

far met with resistance from all categories of casuals. However, to

ensure professional competence, there is no other option but to

undertake, at the earliest, a proper skill evaluation of all casuals across

all units of AIR and DD, by a Committee that could be formed under

the leadership of the Chairman to guide PB appropriately. Board

seconded CEO’s suggestion.

6.1.5. Board also approved fee enhancement of the few

categories of casuals mentioned in the Agenda with prospective effect

but added that this must be followed up by mandatory skill tests at the

earliest for all categories of casuals including RJs, casual engagees in

News Wings/RNUs.

Revision of fee structure for performing Artists - Issuance of Corrigendum (Tabled Item)

6.1.6. The Board was informed that Fee structure for

Performing Artistes of AIR and DD was revised in November, 2012

(PB’s order No. A-10/159/2011.PPC (Vol.II)). Subsequently,

representations were received from Kendras seeking clarifications

and suggesting modifications for revision in the fee structure in

view of the practical difficulties being faced by them in its

implementation. DG, AIR had also moved a proposal to

completely revise the fee structure pertaining to sports events

related programming.

6.1.7. A Committee, headed by ADG (A&F), DG: DD and

senior programme officers of AIR and DD, as proposed,

deliberated on the proposed amendment and recommended

subsequent fee structure for Performing Artistes in continuation of

the fee structure issued on 21.11.2012.

6.1.8. The agenda was tabled by Principal Adviser (P&A) and

the need to bring about the recommended amendment was

explained by DG, AIR (for sports Commentators and other

performing artistes booked for sports programming), and DG, DD

(for all residual categories of fee structure for DD)

6.1.9. The proposal was approved with prospective effect.

6.2 Doordarshan: New Initiatives

(Agenda C-2)

6.2.1. DG, DD informed the Board of the new Kisan Channel, the

decision to split the existing solitary NE channel into 3 separate 24x7

satellite channels to cater to the 8 North East States and the re-launch

of DD India, all of which are to be undertaken in a time bound

schedule.

6.2.2. She informed that DD Kisan, announced by

Government, was an initiative aimed at providing a dedicated

television channel to serve the needs and aspirations of the farming

and rural community and it was expected to be launched in first

quarter of 2015.

6.2.3. DG DD also informed that the Kisan channel requires a

certain amount of focussed and fresh programming which is planned

to be met by a combination of in-house production and outsourced

content. She proposed the adoption of SFC guidelines (as approved

by the Board in its 123rd meeting) with some minor modifications,

detailed in the agenda note, which were aimed at meeting the

particular needs of the Kisan Channel, DD-India and three North

East channels.

6.2.4. DG DD also put up for approval a Production Rate Card for

sourcing of content through SFC for DD Kisan, placed at Annexure 30.

She explained that the Production Rate Card caters to various genres

of programming including some special needs of the channel, like

Mandi Bhav, Weather Bulletin, farm news, agro-based bulletin etc.

6.2.5. DG, DD proposed engagement of professional manpower

for the new channels keeping in view that none of the new projects

have a sanctioned staff component, and there was an overall acute

shortage of programme personnel in the organisation. She mentioned

that 67 professionals under various categories have been identified for

meeting the special needs of DD Kisan and they needed to be inducted

in addition to the existing categories in the contractual policy of PB.

Attention of the Board members was drawn to details of the desired

categories, along with their remunerations that were placed at

Annexure 33.

CREATIVE HEAD - KISAN

6.2.6. DG DD also informed the Board that with a view to

imparting professional leadership to the Content Strategy efforts of DD

Kisan, DD undertook an exercise to engage a Creative Head for the

Channel. The matter was considered by the High Level Coordination

Committee (HLCC) of DD in its meeting held on 12-11-2014. HLCC

interviewed the candidates who responded to a public notice for the

same and keeping in view the urgency of the requirement,

recommended Shri KK Malviya, currently working as Group Editor

Sadhna News for engagement for a period of one-year, at a monthly

remuneration of Rs 1,65,000 (all inclusive). The HLCC also recorded

its view that the candidates who had responded to DD’s public notice

were not of very high calibre, and that in future DD may look at

exploring other channels of engaging top level professionals, like using

the services of professional head hunting agencies, etc.

6.2.7. The Board felt that for senior-level engagees, who may be

given the responsibility of heading new initiatives of DD like, Kisan,

DD-India and the 3 NE channels, the existing policy of recruiting

through advertisements may need to be supplemented by engaging

the services of head-hunting and HR consultancy agencies and also

employing ‘search mode’. This would allow PB to seek out the best

talent available in the market, suitable to its needs.

6.2.8. Board was informed that following the bifurcation of State

of Andhra Pradesh, PB had set up separate 24x7 channels DD

Saptagiri and DD Yadagiri to cater to the needs of the two new States.

It was submitted by DG, DD that the resulting changes in viewership

universe necessitated revisions in the existing Commercial Rate Card

for the sale of airtime so that both new channels could immediately

embark upon commercial airtime sales for revenue generation. She

mentioned that the proposed rate cards for DD Saptagiri and DD

Yadagiri were placed at Annexure-35 for the Board’s approval. She

also mentioned that a similar exercise had been undertaken for DD

Kisan since it was a new channel with a unique positioning, without

any existing reference points in the Indian TV sector, and the

proposed Commercial Rate Card for DD Kisan was placed at Annexure-

34.

6.2.9. The Board welcomed the initiatives of DD and approved

the proposals with the hope that this would give the DD necessary

flexibility to ensure good content, viewership and airtime sales of

these channels.

6.2.10. CEO mentioned that following a visit to North East, he

had informed that the 8 states of the region were being

inadequately served by a single DD channel, and therefore had sought

Board’s approval to split it into 3 separate channels: (i) one would

meet the needs of Assam and Meghalaya (ii) another to address the

viewership of Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim and (iii) the third would

cater to Manipur, Nagaland and Mizoram Mizoram with all languages

and dialects prevalent in these States. The 8thstate (Tripura) was being

addressed by DD Bangla which would make necessary modifications in

its content and FPC to serve the needs of the state. He said that the

budget identified for this exercise was Rs. 60 crore, but, with the

cut back in Government support, chances are very dim that PB

could start the process of launching the 3 channels in this financial

year itself. He added that DD could always fall back on its

existing pool of content (by maximising the use of NREP), to meet

the content needs of NE channels and that of Kisan Channel.

6.3. DD Free Dish: Business Strategy for Expansion &

Popularisation

(Agenda C-3)

6.3.1. CEO explained that DD has traditionally relied

overwhelmingly on its terrestrial transmission network but latest

data indicates increasing marginalisation of terrestrial TV (which

may possibly be limited to as little as 7% of TV viewing

households). Technology course-corrections on several fronts have

been initiated (as elaborated in Agenda B-4) and one of them is the

expansion and promotion of DD’s DTH Network Free-Dish. He said

that even by a conservative estimate, DD Free-Dish is agreed to have

the largest DTH subscriberbase (upwards of 14 million), but due to

the current lack of CAS in DD Free Dish, there is no way to verify the

actual number of subscribers. He further mentioned that despite the

huge subscriber base of DD Free Dish, the fact remains that its

channel offering is unattractive. Apart from the slots reserved for DD

Channels, the remaining ones on Free Dish are filled up by auction,

and therefore only those channels who qualify the e-auction get a

presence on the Freedish. A strategy or policy aimed at designing

an attractive bouquet is important and critical if DD is to maintain

and build up viewership base and earnings of DD Free Dish, all the

more so, since, very soon, the number of channels on the platform

would be scaled up from 59 to 112. CEO drew the attention of

the Board Members to the proposal placed at Agenda, where a

very well calibrated 4-pronged strategy has been spelt out

summarised as under:

(a) Auction: This is the existing channel acquisition mode whereby a

certain number of slots are periodically auctioned with the objective of

maximising revenue for DD;

(b) Invite on Zero Payment basis: Under this category, DD would

have the option to include some channels on DD Free Dish without

any payment, so as to add further variety to the bouquet, or the

‘niche’ characteristic of the channels, viz., leading and reputed

international public services broadcasters;

(c) Pay the Channel: Under this category, a certain number of slots

would be reserved for channels who would be paid by DD to

feature on the platform on account of their attractiveness to

viewers, and their ability to improve viewership and subscriber base of

DD Free Dish; and

(d) Aggregated Content Channel: With the aim of offering

differentiated content on the Free Dish platform, DG, DD pointed

to several global models of “channels aggregators” whereby

content consolidated from various sources are acquired and packaged

so that viewers get a widerange of content (including GECs,

Education, Nature & Wildlife, Cookery, Lifestyle etc.) on one channel.

6.3.2. Members sought to know if the proposed policy envisages

limiting number of slots under each category, as that was a critical

decision to be made. CEO said that the 4-pronged strategy is being

proposed by way of an initial policy document for which Board’s in-

principle approval is being sought so that DG DD may follow

through and come back to the Board with a specific and fine-tuned

proposal with reasoning.

6.3.3. Board gave its in-principle approval to the proposed channel

acquisition policy for the expanded DD DTH platform, as placed above.

6.3.4. CEO informed the Board that E-in-C DD had been invited to

report on the status of expansion of DD Free Dish,and other related

changes being introduced, including CAS, transition from MPEG-2 to

MPEG-4, setting up of customers service/ call centre, and promotion

& publicity of new STBs, etc.

6.3.5. E-in-C, DD made an elaborate presentation to the Board

and informed Members that a fully functional CAS enabled

expanded Free Dish , as envisaged by PB, could be in place within

two and half months of a decision on the CAS vender. E-in-C

informed that every other detail of the expansion was in place

and without CAS, DD would be in a position to launch it in the next

15 days. But since CAS was central to the success of the expanded

DD DTH platform, Members sought to know why identification of CAS

vender was proving to be such a big challenge, due to which the

proposed expansion has been delayed by more than a year.

6.3.6. Based on the presentation made by E-in-C DD, Board

Members felt that it would be difficult to expect the expanded Free

Dish to be launched any time before 4 months. Members also felt

that steps for easy availability of new STBs, wide-spreadpublicity, as

well as, an effective migration plan to transfer existing customers of

DD Free Dish to the new STBs would play a crucial role in the

success of this endeavour.

6.3.7. In this regard, CEO mentioned that PB is looking to the

Ministry for active support in popularising new STBs of DD Free Dish,

and encouraging local manufactures. He said that Ministry is

aggressively following up on the digitization of the cable network, as

part of DAS roll-out, but what is possibly being missed out is that

by promoting DD’s DTH (which is anyway digital), Ministry would

be furthering the cause of digitisation of the broadcast network in

the country. CEO mentioned that unfortunately what was being

promoted aggressively by the Government was STBs with DVB-C

Standard, which are for cable networks, and not the DVB-S Set Top

Boxes which are the ones for DD Free Dish. The Board felt that

the Ministry could be duly sensitized and requested Nominated

Member to kindly take up this issue so that the new STB’s of DD Free

Dish could be made available in large numbers and seeded in the

entire country, particularly in rural areas, while DTT could address

urban clusters.

6.4. Shri Akshay Raut, DG DD (News) was invited to present the four agenda items on various issues pertaining to AIR and DD News.

6.4.1. Inclusion of DG News (AIR) on PB Board and other

critical amendments of PB Act. (Agenda C-4)

6.4.1.1 On the proposal received from DG (News) AIR seeking

expansion of the PB Board by suitably amending the Prasar Bharati Act

to include the two DGs News as ex-officio Members, at par with

other DGs on the Board, Chairperson felt that the current

composition of the Board give it a certain character and balance,

which should not be disturbed.

6.4.1.2. CEO drew attention of the Board to other critical

amendments in the Prasar Bharati Act that have been sought by PB

after detailed deliberations in various Board meetings, and that a

brief statement on the subject of ‘critical amendments’ was placed at

Annexure-38. He mentioned that some press reports had indicated

that the Government may also be considering certain amendments to

the Prasar Bharati Act and expressed the view that, if such a course

was indeed being contemplated, Prasar Bharati’s views on the

matter, especially amendment to Sections 32 and 33, as detailed in

Annexure-38, be taken on board and Prasar Bharati be included in

the discussions.

6.4.1.3. The Board seconded CEO’s proposal to send a

communication to the Ministry seeking clarification on any proposed

amendments being contemplated, and seeking Prasar Bharati’s

involvement in such discussions on behalf of the Board.

6.4.2. Extension of Contract for Hiring of 16 DSNG Vans for DD News

(Tabled item-7) 6.4.2.1. The Board considered the proposal and ratified the

decision to hire 16 DSNG Vans for DD-News from the old vendor

on the existing terms, conditions and rates until a new vendor was

finalised. The Board desired that the process of identifying the new

vendor be completed at the earliest.

6.4.3. Extension of contract of M/s Grasshopper Media for

DD News Channel (Tabled item-8) 6.4.3.1. The Board took note of the fact that the contract of M/s

Grasshopper Media was for a 3-year period beginning 2012 and

that DD News was to certify its performance after a mid-term

review at the end of the first year of the contract. The Board felt

that since DD News had not undertaken the performance review,

as mandated in the contract, this matter was not required to be

brought to the Board.

6.4.3.2. As to the performance of the vendor, the Board felt that

the satisfactory performance of the vender would have to be ensured

by DG News for the period of the contract. Board, therefore, felt

that M/s Grasshopper may be allowed to complete its term till

the stipulated period up to 31st May, 2015 and by that time, the

process of finding new vendor must be completed.

6.4.4. Separate Hindi and News Channels for DD News (Tabled Item-2) 6.4.4.1. Chairperson was of the clear opinion that while

having bilingual channels does not serve the needs of either Hindi

or English viewers, the question of splitting the existing DD News

channel into two requires far greater deliberation, for which DG

News should come back with a detailed paper on strategy, cost,

manpower requirement and the timeline.

6.5. MoU on Co-operation between Nepal Television and Doordarshan

(Tabled item – 4) Conference of Media Forum of SAARC (Tabled Item-5) 6.5.1. The Board took note of the above tabled items.

6.6. Telecast of Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra (Tabled Item)

6.6.1. Board approved DG DD’s proposal to carry the concert live on DD National with a repeat on DD Bharati, as proposed. Board also felt that efforts should be made to get rights of broadcast on suitable channels of AIR. 6.6.2. Members also expressed a view that DD should make every effort to garner commercial revenue around this programme to defray cost of signal transportation to the maximum extent possible. Board felt that DD must draw up and execute a strong publicity campaign towards achieving this.

6.7 Volume Incentive Scheme (Tabled Item)

6.7.1. DG, DD stated that Doordarshan is facing a tough challenge

of retaining its client base due to the shrinking terrestrial viewership.

The NCS (Non Cable & Satellite) segment has been reduced to around

8 million homes with a high rate of attrition. The analysis of full day

viewership over the last 5 years from 2010 to 2014 shows nearly

a 70% drop in viewership on DD National. Doordarshan is still

being considered by Advertisers for purchase only for its NCS audience

delivery and has a very limited presence in C&S homes. The fear of

desertion is stark. There are no adopted ways and means aimed

at retaining the advertisers’ spend through volume incentives and

benefits to couch the impact of inflation due to falling viewership

and GRPs.

6.7.2. DG DD mentioned that Volume Incentive Scheme was

placed before the Board in its 121st meeting held on 9th April, 2014

and was approved in-principle. But it was referred to the BDC

(Business Development Committee) for fine tuning. However, with

BDC not being in existence, after the resignation of Member (F),

and depleted Board, this scheme could not be implemented.

6.7.3. She explained that an Internal Committee of DD had

further reviewed this scheme and final draft was being placed

before the Board with certain modifications as specified in

Annexure-B of the tabled Agenda Note.

6.7.4. The Board expressed deep concern on declining

advertisers’ spend at DD and it was discussed that while bringing

forth such a scheme was the need of the hour, any such

measure would need to be suitably backed up with good quality

content on the channel for attracting viewers in the present times

of stiff competition.

6.7.5. In view of the fact that there was no BDC in existence,

it was decided that the scheme be approved and that FAC,

chaired by Prof. S K Barua may like to examine this scheme in detail

for its effective implementation.

7. Financial matters

( Agenda D)

7.1 Financial Statement: Reduced Allocations & Projected

Impact

(Agenda D-1)

7.1.1. The Board was sensitized to the financial situation of

Prasar Bharati, reduced allocation under RE, and shortfall of

around Rs. 310 crore under Salary Head to be paid by the

Government. It was pointed out that if additional funds are not

released, it may not be possible to give salary to Government

employees in the last month of this financial year.

7.1.2. In addition to the pending recoupment of Rs. 282 crore

paid by Prasar Bharati from its IEBR on account of salaries to

govt. employees in financial year 2012-13 and 2013-14, the

shortfall in the current year may lead to further carryover of

higher liabilities in addition to creating a lot of unrest among the

staff.

7.1.3. It was further pointed out by ADG (F) that as against an

annual release of Rs. 80 crore as revenue plan, this year only Rs. 20

crore had been allocated, which would lead to carry over of current

and pending liabilities of DD Urdu, DD Kashir and NE channels.

7.1.4. The only additionality was Rs. 25 crore approved under

revenue plan for the Kisan channel under RE. Keeping in view

the present needs of content generation encompassing Arun

Prabha, DD Urdu, DD Kisan, Hill & Tribal areas, new channels like

Vijayawada as well as flagship programmes of the Government of

India, a new scheme to the tune of Rs. 480 crore has been

formulated and would be sent to MIB after approval of the Board.

Considering the content requirements for the purposes stated, the

Board approved the proposal.

8.Personnel Matters

(Agenda E)

8.1. Enhancement of Fees of Casual Assignees of DD (Left

out categories)

(Agenda E-1)

8.1.1. Taken up and discussed along with Agenda Item No. C-1.

9. Legal Issues (Part-F) 9.1. Update on Legal Cases

9.1.1. The Board took note of the legal updates with particular reference to SIS Live. Chairman desired that he be apprised separately on the matter.

9.1.2. ADG (Commercial), AIR , who is personally handing the LG Arbitration cases, presented the status of the negotiation with LG over the long-pending dispute. Board desired that the matter be taken up at the next meeting of FAC and its recommendations be put up to the Board for its consideration.