NEW DELHI, APRIL 5: Prasar Bharati today got its act together on the PR front, announcing with great fanfare the highest-ever revenue from Doordarshan and cloaking a controversial decision to allow private players on AIR FM again in fond hopes of radio revenues meeting the target of Rs 125 crore next year. All this, and viewership too, with Prasar Bharati CEO Rajeeva Ratna Shah saying that contrary to popular perception, people watched DD for 54 minutes a day, compared to seven minutes for Zee TV and two minutes for Star Plus a day. And in the nine city survey by TAM, DD1's viewership had increased by 57 per cent between June 1999 and January 2000 - in TAM's 27-city survey, DD1's viewership increased by 44 per cent.Shah told a packed conference hall in Mandi House that much of the highest-ever revenue that DD has got this time - Rs 610 crore - is because of better programming. He pointed to the 175 per cent increase in viewership on Sundays and the 75 per cent rise in viewership on Mondays (because of programmes such as Beta and Suhaag).Shah took the opportunity to batter one myth after another: that all eyes were glued to Titanic on Star Movies on millennium eve. Apparently not. On December 31, between 8 pm and 1 am, DD1 got a 36 per cent share of viewers and Sony lagged far behind at 16 per cent. He also took on the invisibility of Star News, citing the viewership for Budget 2000, with DD1 getting a 0.4 rating in cable and satellite homes, compared to 0.1 rating for Zee News.He also held out a veiled threat to errant employees in DD, saying how nine had been suspended and in nine cases, major or minor penalties imposed. In the case of All India Radio, there were two suspensions and 10 penalties. He also revealed how Modi Entertainment Network had been given the contract to monitor DD1's transmission. And he gave advance warning to all advertisers: with DD now being the established market leader, it would effect increases in its advertising rates. And oddly enough for a private broadcaster, he said DD was not in the bus.
