Navin Kumar, Director-General, Doordarshan is tipped to take over as CEO of public broadcaster Prasar Bharati, as an interim arrangement. A 1975-batch Bihar cadre officer, he takes over from K S Sarma, who demitted his office from today.
Kumar has been Director-General at DD since February 2004 and will assume the CEO's post on an ad-hoc basis till the appointment of a regular CEO by a three-member committee headed by Vice president Bhairon Singh Shekhawat. Kumar's deputation at the Centre ends this August. K S Sarma, is credited with an aggressive strategy on TV rights and giving a commercial orientation to the running of Doordarshan and All India Radio, feels the Government needs to adopt a middle path approach on operational and editorial matters in the running of the public broadcaster. According to a PTI report, Sarma, feels that Prasar Bharati will become a financially viable entity in the next three years, not dependent on Government finances to meet expenses. Sarma has kicked off various initiatives which have see Prasar Bharati cut down its dependence on Government for meeting expenditure, which is to the tune of roughly Rs 1,800 crore annually. "I see enormous future for Prasar Bharati. The potentialities for revenues are enormous without sacrificing our role as a public broadcaster. We have taken a number of initiatives that are aimed at enhancing resources from the existing set-up," he said, adding the public broadcaster could be self-sufficient in the next three years. The slew of new initiatives and cricket telecast saw the cash-strapped public broadcaster realise its highest-ever revenues as they crossed the Rs 1,000-crore mark to close 2005-06 at Rs 1,230 crore at a growth of 48 per cent. In-house marketing of properties, revenues from cricket telecast and increased media campaigns from government departments were among the initiatives behind the growth in numbers. Sarma said introduction of blockbuster Hindi films on DD National network and narrowcasting programming strategy were major initiatives. Sarma said one of the big opportunities for Prasar Bharati was through scrolling of local advertisements. "We have around 600 low-power transmitters and 300 high-power transmitters. Through each of these, we can run scrolls which will have local advertising. I have supplied requisite equipment at every place and now they a going to start. We have as much as Rs 100 crore sitting in this area," he said to PTI. +++++++++++++++++++ Source:http://www.televisionpoint.com/news2006/newsfullstory.php?id=1151676825 +++++++++++++++++++ Jaisakthivel, Chennai, www.groups.yahoo.com/group/sarvadesavanoli __________________________________________________________ Yahoo! India Answers: Share what you know. Learn something new http://in.answers.yahoo.com/ ---[Start Commercial]--------------------- World Radio TV Handbook 2006 is out. Order yours from http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0823059367/hardcoredxcom/ ---[End Commercial]----------------------- ________________________________________ Hard-Core-DX mailing list Hard-Core-DX@hard-core-dx.com http://arizona.hard-core-dx.com/mailman/listinfo/hard-core-dx http://www.hard-core-dx.com/ _______________________________________________ THE INFORMATION IN THIS ARTICLE IS FREE. It may be copied, distributed and/or modified under the conditions set down in the Design Science License published by Michael Stutz at http://www.gnu.org/licenses/dsl.html