NEW DELHI: Public broadcaster Prasar Bharati will auction prime time slots, between 7-11 pm, on its national channel Doordarshan under a new policy that was cleared by the board on Monday. Producers will provide content in return for a share in the advertising revenue under the new policy.

The modalities of the new ‘slot sale’ policy were discussed in a meeting of Prasar Bharati Board, which was also attended by Bollywood actor Kajol, who was nominated earlier this year.

Sources said in the meeting chaired by Prasar Bharati chairperson A Surya Prakash, it was felt that e-auctions could be held for the 7-11 pm slots for all the seven days of the week barring Saturdays. The new policy is expected to be rolled out by October 1.

“We have decided that on Saturdays, Prasar Bharati Board would reserve the 7-8 pm slot for its own content and the 8 to 11 pm slot will be auctioned. For the rest of the days of the week the 7-11 pm band will be auctioned. We hope that the slot sale policy comes into effect from October onwards,” a board member said.

Sources also said the programmes approved earlier under the Self-Financed Commission (SFC) scheme, under which Doordarshan acquires programmes and then recovers cost through ad revenue, will also be utilised by the channel.

Earlier there were reports that many of the SFC programmes, including one on the life of Deendayal Upadhaya and another on the life of Savitribai Phule, could be scrapped.

One of the members, Ashok Tandon, had drawn the attention of the board to this issue, sources said. “The programmes which have been approved will be utilised and a committee will look into these aspects. However, there may be some shifting of the time slots based on the auction process results,” a source said.

In the meantime about 154 producers have claimed that they have invested Rs 8-10 lakh each in making serials under the SFC scheme which are being scrapped.

Some like Ujwal Jain have also moved court seeking a stay on the new policy. "We have invested Rs 15-20 crore on serials based on guidelines provided by DD. All we ask is that we at least be evaluated before the policy is done away with,’’ a producer said.



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