Prasar Bharati making a foray into digital media

Prasar Bharati plans to introduce mobile applications for Doordarshan and All India Radio that will provide news and entertainment including access to rare archival material to viewers on mobiles, laptops and tablets. The public broadcaster also plans to sell excess land as part of its efforts towards financial restructuring.

 Both DD and AIR are already on Youtube and Twitter with a growing following. While DD News has 32,000 followers on Twitter, it receives an encouraging 700 views a day on Youtube. There are about 1,700 videos uploaded currently. AIR too has 24,000 followers on Twitter. The next step according to a senior official is to create and develop mobile apps.

The archival material that is being digitized and uploaded could be subscription based. The media organization also hopes to earn advertising revenue to the tune of Rs 200 crore with eventually digital media earning 25-30% of its revenue. The apps are likely to be in operation in the next six months.

Entering the digital platform is a recommendation of the expert committee on digital and social media that has met the Prasar Bharati board's nod as well. The expert committee convener is PM's communications advisor Pankaj Pachauri and members include director general (news) for AIR and DD, Twitter's India head Rishi Jaitly, filmmaker Shekhar Kapur, Google India's Naman Pugalia, Prasar Bharati advisor (new media) Pranjal Sharma among others.

The pubcaster is also exploring the possibility of selling its excess land across the country. "With the large terrestrial network, both DD and AIR own vast tracts of vacant land that has not been utilized. We are looking at the possibility of selling this real estate," a source said.

Source: http://cablequest.org/news/new-media/item/2635-prasar-bharati-making-a-foray-into-digital-media.html