If you were born post the 1990s, chances are that the name Prasar Bharati won’t ring a bell. Just to set things into perspective let me state that Prasar Bharati is India’s largest public broadcasting agency. It is an autonomous body set up by an Act of Parliament.
Remember all the epics shows like – Shaktimaan, Mahabharta, Alif-Laila, Flop Show, Malgudi Days, Nukkad, Chitrahaar etc. Doordarshan was the chief architect to bring about the Golden age of Indian Television industry before it was ruthlessly commercialized by the modern private channel giants.
Ask your dad and he will tell you the romance of listening to Kishore Da’s classics on radio late in the night. The sports fans would wait anxiously to hear the sports news and so would the “Fauji Bhai” to hear their favorite songs. All these things comprising of Doordarshan Television Network and All India Radio falls under the umbrella of Prasar Bharati.
It is impossible to talk about Prasar Bharati without a tinge of nostalgia. It is one entity that is available throughout the length and breadth of this enormous country and to all sections of society for free. Sadly it now seems to be becoming a thing of yore with increased competitions from the many private channels. Doordarshan’s shows are more traditionally rich in content and context than the “masala” of the daily soaps of the private networks but sadly this masala seems to be the flavor of the day. All India Radio’s viewership too has taken a dent post the launch of numerous private radio channels using a very sassy style of narration compared to the rich baritone version of the AIR’s RJs.
In this present day and age, Prasar Bharati is like an ancient knight with a sword and a shield going to battle in a nuclear warfare. As much as we love Prasar Bharati, it just cannot expect to thrive because of its glorious past. Many strategic decisions are to be made to ensure that Prasar Bharati doesn’t become a thing of the past.
There is dire need to reinvent Prasar Bharati. And finally, it seems to taken baby steps in the right direction – The Cyberspace. Only a fool would deny that presence on the internet is not the way forward irrespective of the industry sector. Consider for example many global broadcasting majors like Al Jazeera, Russia Today and NPR of the US have formidable presence on the internet.
Prasar Bharati Chairman A Surya Prakash has set up a special ‘Committee for Digital Platform’, which held its first meeting on June 16, to get things moving in this direction. The core idea is to develop a digital platform which basically would present India’s viewpoint on global issues.
Proposed Design:
- Platform is aimed at creating a top digital news brand with international focus, which can present the Indian point of view and perspective on global events
- Platform should included a fully fledged website and mobile app
- Login through social media plugins like Facebook, Twitter etc
- Platform to start with English and later include support for other languages
- The platform will be designed to have presence of Youtube, WhatsApp, Viber etc.
The platform is still in its nascent stage with many decisions still to be made such as Public private partnership mode, technologies to be adopted, manpower matters etc.