Sunday, January 25, 2004

A report by Newindpress.com says that Prasar Bharati - parent organization
of All India Radio - is planning to pull the plug on its External Services
Division. It quotes the CEO of the Prasar Bharati Corporation, K S Sarma, as
saying: "I have written to the Foreign Secretary and I&B Secretary saying
the returns from this are not commensurate with the investments made. I have
asked for a thorough review of the services, news content, everything. The
division was set up when there was no television. Today, it takes effort to
tune in to shortwave. We have to overhaul the entire system first."

Currently, the broadcasts broadcasts are aired through 19 transmitters in in
several locations in India. Officials say these transmitting stations have
outlived their purpose and stretched their budgets.

Half the staff of the 16 language units are language students from the
universities, and officials concede it is difficult to find the right people
for all the languages. The mail has dropped, according to insiders.
Newindpress.com quotes one as saying "The only measure of its success used
to be the letters received from the world over. There was a time when we
received 300 letters a month, now we get one or maybe nothing for months."

Two years ago, letters were despatched to 126 Indian missions abroad seeking
their views on AIR's external services. "Only 50 bothered to reply. Of
those, 38 were not aware that AIR has an external service", an official
said, blaming it on bad advertising.

Officials say they are considering several proposals to revamp the system
though a solution is still nowhere in sight. "There is a proposal to take
news through the satellite route - offering important languages for
transmission on the WorldSpace System. With WorldSpace showing the way,
there is no reason why AIR cannot follow the example or hand over software
to private stations abroad in return for a fixed fee and go for Webcasting,"
an official said.

(Source: DXAsia)

# posted by Andy Sennitt@ 16:35 UTC

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