Prasar Bharati approves Doordarshan restructuring, new creative vertical to be established

In a bid to enhance the quality of Doordarshan programmes,the Prasar Bharati Board on Wednesday approved the restructuring of the national broadcaster that will now have a separate dedicated vertical for handling content operations.

The Board, at its 156th meeting, has authorised the search and selection committee headed by Prasar Bharati Chairman A Surya Prakash to select suitable professionals for the roles of Chief Content Officer and Channel Heads on a contract basis.

The board desired that suitable professionals may be identified with 15-20 years or more of experience in broadcasting with specialisation in news/culture /arts /entertainment/sports andother genres of relevance to public broadcasting, having held leadership roles over the last five years, preferably at a large network with responsibility for one or more channels with anationwide viewership footprint.

It was also indicated at the meeting thatidentified professionals must be tuned into the goals and responsibilities of the Public Broadcaster as mandated by Parliament, a statement by Prasar Bharati said.

While the Chief Content Officer will be responsible for the content/creative functions and operations across the Doordarshan network (National and regional channels) in line with the goals and objectives of Prasar Bharati, the Channel Heads are expected to manage individual channels in line with the Content and Channel Strategy.

With this restructuring Prasar Bharati intends to induce professionalism into its content and creative functions in line with state of the art trends, production values and industry bestpractices, the statement said.

Last month, Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar had said creative head will soon be appointed for Doordarshan to enhance the quality of its programmes.

He had asserted that steps were being taken to modernise the public broadcaster.