In a last-ditch effort to save the fattened cows of socialism, Doordarshan and All India Radio, Prasar Bharati Corporation has proposed a return to the licence fee raj. The plan is to levy a one-time fee on each TV at the manufacturing stage. The ostensible objective is to generate greater revenue for public service broadcasting.
Questions: is this just a desperate attempt to keep a corrupt and inefficient broadcaster alive? Even with the funds will it be able to take on the nimbler cable and satellite channels? Will the infusion of funds help DD and AIR do real public service broadcasting or will it only stave off the inevitable end for some time? Do DD and AIR really deserve our money for what they produce?
For the crap they produce, they need to be paying us….
Though I am a strong believer in free market, I support levying a one time tax to support Doordarhan. I agree there is corruption and monumental inefficiency. Despite these drawbacks, we need to support Doordarshan for a simple reason free market does not work in this case. As we know media especially TV is not capable of preserving the finer astpects of culture. Just a casual look at TV and the kind of programs is enough to convince of this.
In the UK, it is the public broadcaster BBC which is televising classical programs and special programs on arts and thus serving the noble cause of preserving the finer aspects of their culture and sometimes even of the rest of the world. In the US, it is Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is meeting the void of cultural famine. PBS though not in the government sector is supported by the donors and not through ad revenues. Unfortunately we in India are still not at a level to support such noble cause and the government has to fill that void.
Once in a while we may get visionary leaders like the present M. V. Kamath who may be able to put Doordarshan on the right path desptie all the drawbacks of government control. For all these reasons, I support levying a TV tax.
Agree with Mr. Shenoy. We definitely need a subscription-funded public broadcaster to provide the kind of programming which may not be highly profitable but is in the interest of society in the long run. There is a reason why Doordarshan/AIR used to (and still) broadcast classical music concerts, documentaries, award-winning movies etc whereas all you find on your average cable channel are video albums featuring Rakhi Sawant. That is because, in the immediate term, Rakhi Sawant sells much better than Balamurali, but I am sure no one is going to argue that a society fed on constant diet of RS is a healthier one than a society fed with the kind of holistic programming that DD/AIR used to provide. Free-market supporters will argue that if constant diet of RS is so harmful, then society will correct itself eventually and return back to Balamurali. But the problem is, by then it may be too late and society may even have lost the capability to produce a Balamurali, so there is no question of returning back to it. That is where USA is currently and we are lucky that we are not yet there, so there is still time for us to change things for the better on this aspect.
I would even include news and current affairs as an area which is not really suited for free market.
It is not a question of free market or no free market. The issues here are of autonomy, accountability and competence. On all counts, Prasar Bharati is a crashing failure.
Mr Shenoy talks of a “visionary like M.V. Kamath”. What planet is he coming from? Kamath has been a RSS handmaiden for decades. He has been in power at Prasar Bharati for almost five years. Just what has his contribution been all this while? The truth is Prasar Bharati like all government institutions have become sinecure for party loyalists and fellow travellers, Kamath only being the latest. Will any government get rid of that? No.
As for accountability, does anybody know what the 26,000—yes, 26,000 employees—of Prasar Bharati do? They do not make a programme or produce a programme or sell a programme; all they do is sit around rewinding tapes mde by somebody else, drawing fat salaries to show pictures of mantris, babus and party in power. And for this we must pay them a licence fee? It is not for lack of funds that they cannot do what is expected of them. It’s because they are caught in a time warp.
They neither have the technology, nor the kind of manpower to produce the kind of stuff Mr Mohan Das wants them to. It’s all very well to talk of force-feeding art and culture. But why should everybody pay for what only a few will watch? And to take the argument further, why should only those who buy a TV set from now on pay the licence fee when everybody else who bought a TV before them can enjoy its fare?
We live in the age of digital. It’s only a matter of time before niche channels which will address individual audience tastes will come for which we should pay. That’s a more viable option than giving more money to a bunch of nincompoops who have so far depended on the government’s largesse and the Supreme Court’s ridiculous decree that it should get rights to events of “national interest” even if some other channel has won them, to keep them afloat.
And, pray, what is it that makes us say the free-market won’t work in the case of broadcasting? We said the same about telephony, we said the same about airlines. Look where we are.
@Shenoy,
all said and done, no money would probably improve the nostalgic “Darshan” gone “Door” to most Indians. It is the lethargic bureaucracy that needs to be checked first. And that would in most possibility happen only when it gets out of state control.