| MUMBAI:
The Finance Ministry is giving final touches to a package for helping the media
sector tide over the current global recession which has also affected foreign
investment in media.
A
Finance Ministry official told indiantelevision.com that
the package, which had been submitted by the Information and
Broadcasting Ministry, would generally be for the print media
though some aspects may cover the electronic media as well.
Minister of
State for Information and Broadcasting Anand Sharma said he had decided on a stimulus
package after "representatives of the media industry had written to the government
about the adverse impact of the financial crisis on the media industry. We are
going to give some stimulus package to the media industry and we do hope to mitigate
the situation."
He
was speaking after a meeting with senior media leaders including
Hindustan Times group chairperson and editorial director Shobhna
Bhartia, Indian Express editor-in-chief Shekhar Gupta, and
Publisher and Business Standard editor TN Ninan.
The
Minister refused to give more details but said it would greatly benefit the media
sector as the government was very sensitive to difficulties being faced by them.
Though
the suggestions had originally come in the form of recommendations traditionally
made by every Ministry for the forthcoming Union Budget, it was decided to release
this before the budget in view of the recession that has hit the industry.
The
media industry, particularly the print sector, has been hit
sharply by the fall in advertisement revenue and rising cost
of newsprint because of the global financial crisis.
The
Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity (DAVP) under
the I&B ministry is responsible for releasing government
advertisements in newspapers and figures as one of the most
important advertisement clients for newspapers.
Late
last year, the Ministry had announced enhancement of the existing
rates for the DAVP advertisements by 24 per cent, applicable
for the advertisements released on or after 1 September, 2008.
All categories of newspapers and periodicals empanelled with
DAVP were to be covered under the revised rates. The decision
was expected to benefit more than 4000 newspapers and periodicals.
The small and medium newspapers, among others, would however
be benefiting most as the percentage of advertisements to
be released to these categories of newspapers was increased
earlier.
The
government had earlier brought in changes in the press advertisement
policy to help the small and regional newspaper industry.
The quantum of advertisements was increased from 10-15 per
cent in case of small newspapers and from 30-35 per cent in
case of Medium newspapers, in money terms.
Minimum
publication period requirement was drastically reduced from
36 months to 6 months for regional languages newspapers in
Bodo, Dogri, Garhwali, Khasi, Kashmiri, Konkani, Maithili,
Manipuri, Mizo, Nepali, Rajasthani, Sanskrit, Santhali, Sindhi,
Urdu and tribal languages. Similar concession was extended
to all newspapers in all languages published from backward,
remote hilly and border areas and in Jammu and Kashmir, Andaman
Nicobar and the eight North Eastern states.
Newspapers
which achieve a 100,000 circulation within one year of its
publication are now be considered for empanelment after one
year of publication so that government does not lose this
huge readership for its messages.
Increased
support to Urdu newspapers has been ensured by earmarking
3.54 per cent of total allocation for print advertisement.
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