“Mobile will be the futuristic Media says Jawhar Sircar,IAS(R),CEO ,Prasar Bharati in an exclusive interview with our editor Tarun Sharma

“Mobile will be the futuristic Media as it has the advantage of reaching the lowest depth and the farthest corners of INDIA” and much more says Jawhar Sircar,IAS(R),CEO ,Prasar Bharati in an exclusive interview with our Editor-in-Chief Tarun Sharma

Sh.Jawhar Sircar,IAS(R),CEO, Prasar Bharati in an exclusive interview with our Editor-in-Chief Mr .Tarun Sharma.

Editor: Please tell us about your current role as a CEO of Prasar Bharati and the challenges that lies ahead in your crucial role.

J.S: About my role as a CEO of Prasar Bharati i would like to say that , this is a large organisation that has about 430 TV and Radio stations with more than 50,000 men and therefore the challenges and problems are far different from those of any other media house.

a) Most other media houses has one or two channels and some like Zee Tv ,have larger number but certainly nowhere near the number of 430 plus which i have mentioned.

b) We are the only one to have terrestrial spread which means that we have 1900 transmitters spread across all over INDIA that have to be looked separately,no other broadcaster in INDIA has that responsibility or the huge task of maintaining this free to Air service wheres the satellites are relatively very easy to maintain.

Editor:You had been instrumental in turning around various sectors in the state of West Bengal,Please share your success mantra.

J.S: Well,It’s always been HARD WORK and CO-OPERATION of my colleagues that’s what all i can say.

Editor:INDIAN Media has diversified in a short span spreading across to digital,online,mobile and not limited to TV and Newspaper,Where do you foresee the future of Media.

J.S: I would say it’s not Indian media but the media across the world which is fast changing,Media is a plural from Medium,how people communicate with each other.Suppose its a large scale exchange of views and news,when i talk of views including infotainment,entertainment as well.So media covers the entire gamut of human communication on a larger scale of a larger audience.One to One communication is a dialogue,three people is to be a trilogue ,and if you make it more than that it becomes a medium of communication-“MEDIA”.Now as it is growing and moving along, content and its gathering and its manufacture whether it’s been in the form of News or Entertainment,we will always be there.The question is what is the medium it will go through.Once upon a time entertainment was done on the wooden stage then it moved on to electronic i.e Radio from that it moved on to Audio-Visual stage i.e Film and Television ,and now it might move on to a superior stage of handheld devices like Mobile and others ,after all remember INDIA has more than 900 millions mobile sets as against 160 million TV sets,though TV sets are multiple users and mobile sets normally are single users but this cant’t be strictly compared.But mobile sets has the advantage of reaching the lowest depth and the farthest corners of INDIA.

Now there’s  a theory that it is after all the mobile that is going to replace the STATICS,static means” STATIC COMPUTER,STATIC EMAIL,STATIC INTERNET AND STATIC TELEVISION”.This means that we would be no more looking at PC the personal computer on the desk,we are no more going to be looking at the TV on the wall or fixed on the table,but we will be moving along with it.So the broadcasters duties will get more complex ,he doesnt have to relay or create news or content but he has to run after the viewers with that news and content in other words to put across the broadcaster will have to to “CHASE THE USER”.

Editor: Doordarshan being a government supported entry is still struggling vis a vis private players or so called competitors in terms of revenue ,presentation despite having the maximum reach whether it’s remote area of INDIA or metros ,what’s your say on that.

J.S: Doordarshan started as a government entity but it is no more a government entity from the last 16 years and it became a government supported entity.Prasar Bharati is a statutory autonomous body established under the Prasar Bharati Act and came into existence on 23.11.1997. It is the Public Service Broadcaster of the country. The objectives of public service broadcasting are achieved in terms of Prasar Bharati Act through All India Radio and Doordarshan. All over the world there are Government supported entities,the much respected or discussed BBC have much more support.The public service broadcaster in USA gets 450 million to 500 million support i.e 2500-2600 Crores in INR. Our extent of support is far less than this amount of BBC.Last Year we have received 412 crores as plan support and 1650 crore of non-planned support i.e exactly 2062 crores is what we have got.Whereas a public broadcaster in USA get around 2500-2800 crore INR support every year.So it’ a question of one public broadcasting system that  flies on the non-profitable route ,so in other words is  kept up by the Government .Government support provided not as its mouthpiece but as to cover what the Domain called PUBLIC BROADCASTING.Well it has its own revenue generation problems Last Year for instance our revenue generation was to the tune of 1500 crores, now compared to the 1650 crores that we got for the salaries and other expenses .1600 crore is not a bad amount it’s almost matching but there could always be more improvement.And recent TAM reports also shows the kind of support we are getting from the viewers across INDIA.

Editor: Government entities losing to private players for e.g Airlines PVT Players doing better than government players(Spice Jet Vs Air ndia) etc.Where do you see the future of Prasar Bharati during your tenure.

J.S: We just discussed in previous discussion on Non Profitable groups,What i mean is if we talk about a state like MANIPUR-a small state i have to broadcast everyday in Akaashwani ,30 languages there and none of the language are giving me let us say profits in the same way as a private operator looks at it.But somebody has to maintain the cultural equilibrium of the North,North East, North West ,South and other places,all these are best done by none other but public bodies.So those public bodies who are maintaining this are also entitled to some amount of support,it is neither charity nor doesn’t make it a public sector unit,in other words  “EVERYBODY CANT FLY A PROFITABLE ROUTE”.

Editor:Please describe Prasar Bharati in your valuable words.

J.S: Prasar Bharati is an entity which has passed through its POST NATAL ,POST BIRTH BANGS,has had a checkered history of RISE AND GROWTH of STAGNATION but as it’s current figures in terms of viewership(recent TAM report),in terms of rising revenue and in terms of improved morale are concerned we have every hope that we will be able to get through and improve ourself.

Editor:Your precious message to media fraternity at large Nationally and Internationally.

J.S:Our job is to create GOOD PROGRAMMES  FOR GOOD VIEWING ,whether be through HONEST DEPICTION OF NEWS or DECENT DEPICTION OF CULTURE , whatever way, our goal is to create enough viewing material to satisfy the needs of our people and also to maintain the basic fabric of our National Unity.So if we can do that i think we have done our duty.