DD's viewership, revenue drops while Akashvani's goes up: govt

New Delhi: The revenue of Doordarshan has suffered a setback because of “sharp drop” in number of terrestrial TV viewers but Akashwani has gained “substantially,” the Rajya Sabha was informed on Tuesday. Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Rajyavardhan Rathore gave these details in a written reply. [caption id=“attachment_2750264” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  MoS, Information and Broadcasting, Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore. PTI[/caption] “Prasar Bharati has informed that revenue of Akashvani has gone up substantially but Doordarshan has suffered a setback because of sharp drop in number of terrestrial TV viewers,” Rathore said. He reasoned that the mode of acquiring programmes through commissioning or self finance commissioning had resulted in dipping of DD National viewership and consequently revenue. Replying to another question, Rathore said Prasar Bharati is considering to auction certain prime-time slots of Doordarshan to source high-quality content. “DD was directed to come up with a slot sale policy so that genuine external and creative professionals can mount their programmes on DD channels through slot purchase. In this scheme, DD would stop financing production through ‘Pay Out’ modes and instead have revenue assurance in the form of a slot fee,” Rathore added. He said that the policy envisages that producers are made stakeholders in the scheme.