Live coverage of his functions has increased recently

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s live coverage on Rajya Sabha TV has increased manifold ever since M. Venkaiah Naidu took over as Vice-President and Rajya Sabha Chairman, who is the administrative head of the channel.

When Hamid Ansari was the Vice-President, only official functions of Mr. Modi were covered, and those too were decided on a case-to-case basis. There was a strict ban on his political rallies and speeches.

Conscious decision

“The new management of RSTV made a conscious decision not to compromise on selection of themes. One major change in editorial policy has been to increase coverage of the Prime Minister. This helps RSTV to take advantage of Mr. Modi’s connect with people to increase its own viewership,” a senior Rajya Sabha TV official said.

In February alone, the Prime Minister was covered live 21 times on RSTV; the coverage included a three-minute capsule of his election rally in Tripura and a public rally in Itanagar.

And in March, at least 17 of his events were covered live, including the oath-taking ceremony of the new BJP CM in Tripura, where Mr. Modi was present, and his public rally in Varanasi along with French President Emmanuel Macron.

The official claimed that the new editorial policy is getting more eyeballs. Quoting an example, the official said that ever since RSTV has started relaying PM’s Mann Ki Baat, the viewership has been rising with each episode. The YouTube subscriber base of RSTV is over 7 lakh, now ahead of DD News, which has 4.4 lakh subscribers, and Lok Sabha TV, which has only 1.75 lakh subscribers.

The Opposition is not happy with the change. In February, it accused RSTV of biased coverage. Trinamool Congress leader Derek O’Brien and Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said the government was converting RSTV into ‘BJP TV’.