Doordarshan's Problems

Tangle of Problems Contd...

With the launch of Star News Channel¹⁰ (the first independent news channel) in 1998, DD news lost its viewers to Star news. The in depth analysis of news items by Star News caught the imagination of the viewers (Refer Table V for a comparative study of different news channels). Analysts felt that private news channels could do well because of the image of DD as propaganda machinery of Government.

TABLE IV
COMPARISON OF THE NEWS CHANNELS

Analysts also felt that political interference and corruption were another reason for DD's poor performance. In 1997, The Indian broadcasting bill was introduced in Parliament. The bill was not passed but it was enforced through an ordinance nearly a decade when after it was enacted. DD was brought under a holding company called the 'Prasar Bharti'.

In 1998, Government sacked Prasar Bharti CEO S.S. Gill and government made DD answerable to a parliamentary committee. Political interference at the top level worsened the matters for DD. It was also alleged that members of the Central Commissioning Unit (CCU)¹¹ of DD were taking bribes from the producers to air their programmes.

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10] Star News Channel was the first news channel to be set up by the private producers. It was started by the NDTV with Star Network.
11] The CCU was set up in 1991 to oversee the commissioning of the programmes. It was headed by Controller of Programmes in Doordarshan.