Prasar Bharati Chairman A. Surya Prakash expects a 50 per cent vacancy in Doordarshan and All India Radio in the next few years and hence stressed the imperatives of constituting a recruitment board to fill up the openings at the earliest.
Addressing a press conference here on Wednesday, Mr. Surya Prakash said it was 17 years since Prasar Bharati came into existence paving way for autonomy of both DD and AIR, but the recruitment board was yet to be constituted by the government. “As a result, we are unable to recruit permanent staff,” he said.
Prasar Bharati, which is the largest public broadcaster and one of the biggest media corporations in the world, employs about 45,000 persons of whom 31,000 are permanent staff and 14,000 have been recruited on a contract basis.
“In the next 4 to 5 years, about 50 per cent of our permanent staff will retire and we will not have staff for programming,” he said.
The Prasar Bharati can get the best of young talent to the field once the recruitment process was launched, said Mr. Surya Prakash.
Prasar Bharati has a budget of nearly Rs. 4,000 crore, of which Rs. 2,100 crore was by way of government underwriting the cost, while DD earned about Rs. 1,650 crore. “Besides, we are seeking the transfer of our assets — mainly real estate — which was yet to take place and this will help in monetising them,” he said.
Mr. Surya Prakash said he was sceptical of the Television Audience Measurement (TAM) ratings as a barometer of popularity of a channel and said the rating samples have an urban bias.
“There are nearly 6,000 people meters installed to record television viewing habits for a country of nearly 125 crore people. If the ratings have to be accurate, then 60 per cent of the meters should be in rural areas where 60 per cent of the country’s population live,” he said.
But with the crystallisation of Broadcast Audience Research Council as an alternative rating system, Prasar Bharati has insisted that at least 60 per cent of the meters should be in rural areas for more accurate rendering of ratings. The BARC is expected to be in place by October, he said.
Mr. Surya Prakash said as a public broadcaster, Prasar Bharati had played a pivotal role in reaching out to the poor in rural areas. If the country was free from polio, credit to a large extent should go to both Doordarshan and AIR, he said.
In the next 4 to 5 years, about 50 per cent of our permanent staff will retire and we will not have staff for programming
A. Surya Prakash,Chairman, Prasar Bharati
