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'DD
is operating in a time warp'
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(Courtesy
Hindustan Times) |
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(Posted
on 23 June 2001)
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Ravina Raj Kohli is a tenacious professional. The lady has
come a long way from being an advertising professional to
running a radio company in Singapore to heading the legendary
Ozzie media and gaming baron Kerry Packer's Indian broadcasting
joint venture HFCL-Nine Broadcasting India. So when you hear
her say that she is flummoxed, she clearly must be. The government
has pulled the rug from under her company's feet by calling
for rebidding for supply of five and a half hours of programming
by private firms on DD Metro. She had been renegotiating her
earlier bid with DD and ministry officials, asking for better
terms when they simply cut the line on her.
The first round
of bidding has come and gone without any takers, forcing pubcaster
Prasar Bharati to call for fresh bids with the carrot that
there is no floor price for tenders this time round. Meanwhile,
Packer has decided enough is enough and as things stand Nine
Broadcasting's DD Metro operations will shut shop on 10 September.
Indiantelevision.com's
Anil Wanvari spoke to Kohli in a free-wheeling interview on
the strange ways of DD.
You were
in talks with Prasar Bharati to resolve the situation. Then
what happened? Why did the talks fail?
We were in talks
with Prasar Bharati to reconsider our proposal. Certain improvements
like ensuring reach of DD Metro penetration, enhancement of
the transmitter network, had not been made and hence we had
not been able to deliver on our targets to advertisers and
hence on our revenues targets.
So we asked them for an extension of the contract to a long
term one to allow us to recover our investments. They disagreed
to this. They then offered us an 18-month extension. We asked
them for certain concessions: like flexibility to bank the
unused free commercial time, introduce certain programme genres...They
never got back on this. There was total silence. And then
we got a letter from the Prasar Bharati that they were reopening
the bids. Just like that. Now, after the first bid failed,
they announced that they would programme and market DD Metro
themselves.
What baffles us is that we were told that there would be audit
problems if we were given an extension for 18 months. In the
new tender they were open to offering the time band to someone
for three years. Are there no audit problems now? We are flummoxed.
The whole attitude at DD is incorrect. How can they treat
a partner like this? Especially one who has invested so much
in its belief in terrestrial television and built up the DD
Metro brand? What have we done to become a victim? Research
has shown that DD-2 is the preferred channel over DD-1 and
Nine Gold has quadrupled viewership in C&S homes for DD Metro.
What issues does this situation throw up?
DD cannot continue in the time warp that it is operating
in thinking that it can do what it wants. It should be thinking
of milking the assets it has. To fulfil its role as a public
broadcaster it must increase viewership and have loyal audiences.
It must improve its brand equity. It must raise the value
of national reach media. India has a strange situation where
the national reach broadcaster has just 25 per cent of the
ad market, while cable and satellite TV has 75 per cent. I
do not know if anyone is concerned about this. The situation
should be the other way round.
DD is a jewel that is not being given its due place in the
crown. DD's primary objective as a public broadcaster should
be to build audiences. DD has to become competitive or even
better than competition if it wants find a place in the calender
of viewers. Television today is not a habit like it used to
be earlier, it is about appointments made for shows. There
are some officials who are good in DD and they want to make
DD work; they should be allowed to make it work.
What else
is needed to make a privatised DD Metro work?
There are other issues too: fear of reprisal either from
the CBI or a joint parliamentary committee is also paralysing
many of these officials from taking commercial decisions in
the post-Shah era (Former Prasar Bharati CEO RR Shah is under
investigation for certain deals that were struck during his
tenure). If the government wants DD to work with a private
partner, the officials will have to be given a free hand.
Television is about instant and firm decisions depending on
competitive pressures. It's not about long delayed and arbitrary
ones.
One day we
are told, we can have a film festival on DD. Two days before
we are to commence it, we are told it's a no-no. No reasons
are given. No means no. You cannot predict what an official
will do. Hence you cannot make a programming plan. How can
one work like that in TV?
The sad part
is that if the bid fails or the band gets fragmented, it will
be the end of all the efforts and money we have put in to
build DD Metro as a brand. And even if it succeeds, the other
people who come on board will not have anywhere close to the
commitment we have towards terrestrial television.
There has to
be commitment to make DD Metro's privatisation work. We were
debarred from bidding for the late night slot. We were willing
to put in good money behind our bid. The authorities refused
to lower the floor price from Rs 225 million fixed for the
10:00-11:00 pm slot, in the bid that failed it had been fixed
at a much lower Rs 175 million. Leave aside the fact that
even at this price there were no takers. And
in the latest round of bidding, they have not even kept a
floor price.
We
are asking why did they not heed us then?
Is there
any possibility at all of you re-bidding for the time band?
We will not bid for the new tender as the terms are unrealistic.
What
about your producers who have been commissioned for shows?
All our producer partners will be protected. Most of the serials
will run their course and we will end them as our contract
expires on 10 September.
Are advertisers
continuing to back you?
Advertisers would like us to continue running the programming
block. They are backing us all the way. Some of them may be
flustered about the culmination of the contract but most are
backing us.
See earlier interview
'We
have a long term vision for DD Metro'
Read
more Interviews...
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