The Hindu : DD faces heat on news front

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jun 15, 2003

National

National

DD faces heat on news front

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI JUNE 14. Up against a plethora of 24-hour news channels and eager to regain some of the ground that it has lost to private channels in the genre of news over recent years, Doordarshan is actively considering a sizeable news component for its Metro channel.

Of the view that the news component on its channels was inadequate to stave off the challenge posed by the round-the-clock news channels, Prasar Bharati is looking at Metro as the platform to launch its "offensive''. What shape it will take is yet to be worked out, but officials maintain that this is under active consideration and that a sizable slot will be set aside for news on primetime Metro in the days to come.

Though by virtue of being a terrestrial channel Doordarshan's reach is phenomenal compared to the satellite channels, the public broadcaster has been practically edged out of cable television homes. With Metro being the more popular of Doordarshan channels, Prasar Bharati has zeroed in on the second terrestrial channel to give the private news channels some competition.

Given the pressure on Doordarshan to include the footage of Government functions and schemes, the public broadcaster is also likely to turn its weekly quarter-hour news capsule, "Samachar Diary" into a twice-a-week affair. Not only will this help the public broadcaster do its daily tightrope act more easily, an additional programme will also allow more time for promoting Government schemes; crucial for any dispensation when elections are round-the-corner.

While competition made Doordarshan acquire a new look last year, this has become an ongoing exercise-of-sorts; particularly, of late, when many a private channel has reinvented itself. Regular in-house training programmes are being conducted to improve the presentation skills of anchors, and the sets recently got a facelift with a `moving' backdrop. Also, a graphics machine has been acquired to extend graphic support to the news capsules.

But, evidently, this has not uplifted the profile of Doordarshan news as nearly a dozen of the over two score new recruits of last year — selected by a private human resource agency to avoid the pulls and pressures that a Government agency is subject to — have moved to greener pastures.

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