Prasar Bharati May Hive Off Transmission

The Prasar Bharati is considering a proposal to hive off its transmission network into a subsidiary company, and to then go in for a joint venture or technical alliances with private firms.

This is in line with the recommendations of a high-level committee which had been set up to study the working of the Prasar Bharati.

The committee, comprising marketing guru Shunu Sen, Discovery India's country head Kiran Karnik and Infosys chairman Narayanamurthy, submitted its report last week.

"Prasar Bharati is not averse to hiving off its transmission activities into a separate identifiable unit and form a subsidiary for transmission within the Corporation's umbrella," a senior government source said.

Once the transmission activity is hived off, AIR transmission facilities may be made available on a commercial basis to private FM radio operators who have bid for FM radio stations in 40 cities, the source said.

The Prasar Bharati review committee has also recommended that the corporation should work towards making the hived-off transmission unit a profit centre. Though the Prasar Bharati board is yet to discuss the review committee's report, sources said the studio services and transmission services were likely to be made into separate entities.

Last year, the Prasar Bharati had formed a committee to look into the feasibility of hiving off transmission activities of Doordarshan into a separate entity or, simultaneously, to go in for a joint venture or technical collaboration with a foreign company for setting up a subscriber management system (SMS) for its proposed direct-to-home (DTH) TV service.

A group of ministers, set up by the Prime Minister to look into the issue of KU-band DTH, had suggested last year that Doordarshan should be allowed to be the first player in the DTH arena. In this regard, a proposal is pending with Prasar Bharati from a French company, TDF, for a joint venture in transmission network and SMS for DTH services.

Among the other companies that were shortlisted then was another France-based pay TV major, Canal Plus, which, incidentally, has already signed a memorandum of understanding with Zee Telefilms Ltd.

"All these proposals are under consideration of the Prasar Bharati, especially in the light of the recent recommendations of the review committee which also dwells on having a separate transmission network," the source said.

Meanwhile, the review committee has suggested that Doordarshan and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd could tie up for delivering content through the Internet to tap business opportunities arising from the convergence in telecom, broadcasting and infotech sectors.

The committee has also suggested that within Prasar Bharati, a New Media division be created to explore opportunities in the Internet, interactive TV, DTH and digital terrestrial broadcasting.

Prasar Bharati has already initiated talks with several international media players, including AOL, CNN, BBC and Japan-based Sony Corporation. A Sony group company, Sony Pictures Entertainment, has controlling stakes in the Sony Entertainment TV satellite channel.