Tags:
Journalism of Courage
The Finance Ministry has declined to finance the Prasar Bharati Corporation’s foray into James Murdoch’s Direct to Home (DTH) venture in England, leaving the Corporation of either fending for itself or looking for a partner to sell its channels.
In case of the first option, it is the taxpayer’s money that goes.
Fending for itself would mean paying anywhere between Rs 8 and Rs 10 crore annually to Murdoch to be on his platform.
Exactly 10 months ago, Prasar Bharati Corporation CEO K.S. Sarma and a senior official from the Information and Broadcasting Ministry made trips to England and the US to ink a deal with Murdoch.
The plan was to offer two Doordarshan channels on the BSkyB vehicle.
The Finance Ministry shot down the number of channels to one, before withdrawing its offer altogether.
