DOORDARSHAN: ALIVE OR DEAD??

Submitted To: Foundation for Liberal and Management Education

Submitted By: Shirali Patel App No: 61197 Batch: 2010-2012

Students Declaration

I, Shirali Patel hereby declare that this report, submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Post Graduate Diploma in Communication, to Foundation for Liberal and Management Education is my original work and used anywhere for award of any degree or diploma or other similar titles or prizes.

Place: Pune

Date:

Signature

Acknowledgement
I, Shirali Patel would like to thank all the people who have helped me accomplish this project. Each of their contribution has been invaluable. I would like to express my gratitude to Prof. Achyut Vaze, Dean, and FLAME School of Communication whose constant support and co-operation led to the completion of my project. I express a deep sense of gratitude to Mr. Gunvant Gani and other Doordarshan officials for their valuable inputs without which the project would have been incomplete.

Table of Contents
Objective ....................................................................................................................................................... 5 Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 5 Programs on Doordarshan ............................................................................................................................ 7 Marketing of Doordarshan ........................................................................................................................... 8 Problems Faced By Doordarshan .................................................................................................................. 9 Analysis of Doordarshans Strategy ............................................................................................................ 11 Is DD Dead?? ............................................................................................................................................... 13 Recommendations ...................................................................................................................................... 14 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................................... 16 Bibliography ................................................................................................................................................ 19 Questionnaire ............................................................................................................................................. 20

Objective
Doordarshan, a Public Broadcast Service has lost its viewers to the Private Channels due to various reasons. These channels have updated their shows with the tastes and preferences of its viewers. Doordarshan on the other hand has failed to do so resulting in losing its urban and youth viewers. The main purpose of this project is to find out the reasons for the downfall of Doordarshan after its glorious years and to come up with suggestions that would help Doordarshan re-position itself.

Introduction
Doordarshan, a Public Service Broadcaster, is among the largest terrestrial television network in the world. The service was started in New Delhi on 15 September 1959 to transmit educational and development programs on an experimental basis with half-an hour programming. In the decade of 80s Doordarshan headed towards new heights with new energy and new hopes. On 10th April 1981 INSAT 1-A was launched from Cape Kennedy USA. It had many hopes but it did not work. Next year on 30th august INSAT 1-B was launched, successfully launched. As soon as it started working all the television centers were connected to the satellite. As a result 1982 Asian games telecast was seen live in 21 countries and this was a real remark in the history of Doordarshan team of almost 900 people was involved. The main head office was Jawaharlal Nehru stadium in Delhi. On 15th august 1982 national telecast was started with evening prime time. It included all the programs produced in Delhi and even a national bulletin. Same day flag hoisting ceremony from Red fort Delhi was telecasted in colors that is colored transmission started .This was followed by a phase of rapid expansion of Doordarshan when, in 1984 more or less every day saw the installation of a transmitter in the country. And this hiked the demand of television sets in the country. But in the run of development production of TV programs suffered. It was really slow. To compensate DD depended on film industry and dubbed foreign programs. To overcome this problem in 1983 a committee was set up under the president ship of PC Joshi. This committee on 2nd April 1984 submitted its report on An Indian personality for television report of the working group of software for Doordarshan. It worked on making

national programs or we can say programs of national interest. It was a mixture of developmental and entertainment issues, and this was one of the most successful and popular serial in the history of Doordarshan. After Hum log, Buniyad, Khandaan, Rajni, Nukkad, Kakkaji kahin, Bharat Ek Khoj, Tamas etc. about 40 serials came in a row one after another. In 1983 the number of films shown in a week increased to two plus one regional film was even there. In 1984 when our former Prime Minister Mrs. Indira Gandhi died, whole of the nation witnessed her last rituals live on television. Her son Rajeev Gandhi showed keen interest in Doordarshan. From 1984 to 1989 credit of fast development in Doordarshan goes to Rajeev Gandhi. According to opposition he was using Doordarshan so they named it Rajeev Darshan in humour. Many of the serials like Ramayana , Mahabharata , Bharat Ek Khoj were result of his interests. Doordarshan 2 or what we better known as DD2 started in 1984 and country wide classroom started the same year. In 1987 morning telecast started and in 1989 noon telecast started. The decade of 90s was the most challenging one for Doordarshan as so many new private channels were coming up. In 1992 Haryanas industrialist Subhash Chandra started Zee TV. And in 1993 Kalanidhi Maran started Sun TV. Other foreign channels who invaded Doordarshan were BBC World, CNN, Star World, MTV, ATN, Prime Sports. To keep up with the pace and to fight with the competition DD2 was commercialized and DD 1 continued as such. So DD2 became an earning hand for Doordarshan.

Programs on Doordarshan
The noted shows in the 80s were Buniyyad, Hum-log, Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi etc. On the mythological front were the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, Crime Thrillers were Karamchand, Janki Jasoos etc. Doordarshan gave India its first super-hero Shaktimaan along with other childrens show like Malgudi days, The Jungle Book etc. Other popular shows aired earlier were Fauji, Circus, Tu Tu Main Main, Zabaan Sambhal Ke, Captian Vyom etc. Doordarshan also telecasted English cartoons like Spider man along with the comic plays of Charlie Chaplin and Laurel and Hardy. Doordarshan also brought to the Indian viewers the geographical documentaries made by Jacques Cousteau and David Attenborough. Balaji Telefilms started its various shows like Kayamat and Itihaas on Doordarshan. Presently, it telecasts various programs on music, dance, and health etc. Along with these it also airs various phone-in-live shows like Krishi Darshan. It also has in its list of shows Daily Soaps like Akhand Saubhagyavati Bhava, Kanaposhii etc and mythological shows like sankat Mochan Hanuman. But these shows have not gained the popularity that the initially aired shows had. Doordarshan also has bought rights to air various movies on DD National. But now there are no more Geographical documentaries and cartoons aired here.

Marketing of Doordarshan

Porters 5 Forces Analysis

For Doordarshan Porters Five Force Model is not so accurate, but here is an overview: Bargaining Power of Suppliers: For Doordarshan the suppliers will be the shows which the producers produce. The producers will provide programs to Doordarshan and hence they can be bargained with depending on the quality, concept and star cast of the program. In return the produces who acts as suppliers can negotiate he rates, time slot of the programs etc. Also various suppliers providing technical equipments have expertise and hence bargaining power of suppliers is high. Bargaining Power of Customers: Depending on the TRPs obtained from Television Audience Measurement (TAM), Doordarshan can come to know about the tastes and preferences of its viewers and can make the shows and can alter the telecast of some shows accordingly. Thus the choice of the viewers becomes the object of the channel to bargain but in certain remote areas where there is no access to cable, they have no other option but Doordarshan and hence the bargaining power is high.

Threat of New Entrant: Various new GECs like Colors, SAB TV etc are a threat to Doordarshan. Apart from these main channels there are various other new channels emerging which acts as a threat for Doordarshan. Besides the same media of television, the other media like Radio, Internet etc become a threat. Other factors that affect a Public Broadcaster like Doordarshan are New Government Policies, availability of updated equipments etc. Competitive Rivalry within Industry: The privately owned channels like Zee, Sony, Star Plus etc in entertainment and ESPN, Neo etc in sports are the major competitors for Doordarshan. Nevertheless, Doordarshan still holds a monopoly in National Sports and Local channels. Hence competition is low except that within the industry is high. Threat of Substitute: Other media like Internet, Radio, and Theatre etc are foremost threat for Doordarshan as people along with watching other channels are also diverted towards other media and hence can be considered as the substitute for Doordarshan. On the other hand there are people in various remote areas that watch only Doordarshan and hence there is no substitute there. Hence threat of substitute for Doordarshan is medium.

Problems Faced By Doordarshan

DD was plagued by multiple problems, which found their roots in the mismanagement of affairs. In late 1990s DD faced number of allegations of large-scale scams and irregularities. Underutilized infrastructure, improper investments and poor financial management plagued the performance of DD. In 1992, when the Government opened airwaves to private players like cable & satellite channels, DD faced the sever competition from them. Due to the poor TVRs of the DD programmes companies did not give any advertisement in them, except only some FMCG product companies. Private channels had their own marketing teams, where DD had 56 different producers but no marketing team. Due to the above mentioned problems and the strong hold of the private channels, the revenues drastically declined. During 1998-99 DD earned negative growth of revenues as they lost out on viewership segments with the highest purchasing power. 70 per of HLLs ad spent went to DD till 1998-99. Due to poor TVRs in 2000-01 HLLs share in DDs AD revenues had gone down to 50%

TVRs also decreased because producers & distributors stopped giving Films to DD when asking for minimum guarantee of Rs 10 mn to broadcast a film. Analysts felt that DD's revenues were going down because advertisers considered it as a down-market channel. Political interference & corruption were another reason for DDs poor performance.

Analysis of Doordarshans Strategy

The analysis is based on the life cycle of the channel.

Doordarshan
Introduction:
When Doordarshan was introduced it had the first mover advantage. There were no other television channels. It has the monopoly till the time Zee Tv started telecasting its shows.

Growth Stage

Maturity Stage:

Decline Stage:

Is DD Dead??
As a part of research, a survey was conducted to if Doordarshan is still alive. The main aim of the survey was to find out the viewership of Doordarshan. There was no specific target audience for the survey. All those who watch television were a part of the survey. The sample size of the survey was 50. The questionnaire was either physically given or was given via mail.

Findings:
Most of the people watch films, serials and news on TV. Very few people watch Doordarshan regularly. From the people who watch Doordarshan, the regional Channel was the most viewed as compared to DD National Most people find Doordarshan to be a non-entertaining channel. Most people wanted Doordarshan to be having contents like other private channels. Most old people said that they do not want Doordarshan to become like other private channels. Some people wanted Doordarshan to become more entertaining and attractive in terms of presentation and in its shows. They believed that Doordarshan is different from other private channels and it should remain that way though they suggested some changes. Some of them wanted Doordarshan to adapt to the changing times in ways of its promotion, marketing and presentation. People also didnt like the division of News and TV serials at the same time on the same TV channel. Doordarshan should have separate channel for sports and shouldnt stop the transmission of its program for any sport event.

From the survey it could be concluded that the viewers are used to accept the offering of the privately owned television channel. Doordarshan for them was like an era that had gone and cannot come again. But on the other hand the people in the villages where there was no access to the DTH or other such satellite transmission, Doordarshan was their only source of entertainment after Radio. For farmers Doordarshan was like a teacher. According to them it taught and helped them with various techniques of farming.

Recommendations
The following are the recommendations on the basis of the survey conducted: 1. Creating People Oriented Programs: Doordarshan should come up with new and fresh programs after understanding peoples tastes and preferences. They should also re-telecast some of its old shows that had the highest TRPs. A mixture of serials and reality shows should be created in order to attract new viewers. Doordarshan has an advantage of its initial shows that were a huge success. Hence if shows of similar pattern are produced it can increase its viewership.

2. Maintaining aggressive promotion and packaging approach for all programs: Doordarshan has some of the best dance and musical programs on air. These programs should be promoted heavily. At present there are no advertisements of any kind about the existing programs.

3. Timely Innovations Doordarshan initially had shows in all the possible genres. But now they have shows aired of limited genres. In order to compete with the other channels it should innovate its programming pattern and come up with new and fresh shows that would be well accepted by the audience.

4. Expand the market by launching programs that are relatable to all generations audience Doordarshan doesnt have any programs that are watched by people of all generations or people from all across the country. It has either occupation specific programs like Krishi Darshan or programs specific to ones area of interest like music and dance programs. Along with these programs news shows or old show should be telecasted that cater to the people from all age group. In order to expand the market it should adopt the same programming strategy it adopted it its introduction stage.

5. Advertisement of Programs Apart from using the traditional forms of advertising, Doordarshan should use the latest tools available for advertising. 6. Broadcasting famous TV show for full day Doordarshan should re-telecast its old famous shows for the entire day. This will bring back its viewers.

7. Strong Marketing Department Doordarshan needs a strong marketing department that can market the channel in an innovative way not losing the essence of Doordarshan.

Conclusion
Doordarshan is, without doubt, the leader in terms of channel reach and viewing. Research conducted by INTAM clearly shows that the DD National audience is more than twice that of the total satellite audience. By adding the additional viewership of all other Doordarshan channels, one just increases the size of this lead.

Doordarshan has the highest reach amongst amongst all income groups and socio economic classes. Doordarshan National viewers have the highest number of two - income families (which represent a most desirable segment from the advertisers point of view) amongst all television channels. In addition, Doordarshan National has, by far, some of the most popular programs.

Besides being the mode of distribution for all Doordarshan television programmes in nearly 30 miliion Cable and Satellite homes, there is a growing nexus, and even, partnership in the form of equity participation and other alliances, between cable operators and the private satellite television channels. Indeed, all privately owned satellite channels maintain customer service and a direct link with this distribution chain. Doordarshan does not. As a result, in the Cable and Satellite homes, the Doordarshan channels often get step motherly treatment. Though DD National is always shown on cable, all others including DD Metro are either poorly transmitted or not included by the cable operator in their core list. This will continue to happen, we feel, irrespective of any legislation, until the program context becomes highly desired by the cable audience and till Doordarshan develops a system of customer care, feedback and retention

amongst the cable operators. Doordarshan is one of the largest broadcasting organizations in the world with 20 channels. Hence it has the potential to inform, educate and entertain its viewers if it adopts a new approach its programming and marketing pattern.

Bibliography
http://www.indiantelevision.com/tvr/indextam.php4 http://www.authorstream.com http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doordarshan http://www.ddindia.gov.in/

Questionnaire
1) What do you watch when you switch on your Television sets? Movies and Songs ne NEWS Reality Shows O Others Serials Sports

If others, Specify: ___________________________________________________________

2) Which channels do you frequently watch? _________________________________________________________________________________

3) Do you watch Doordarshan? Yes No

4) If Yes then Why?

5) If No then Why?

6) Do you think Doordarshan should become like other private commercial channels? Yes No

7) What kind of programs would you like to watch on Doordarshan? Reality Shows Daily Soaps Educational Shows hild Childrens Show Others

Comedy Shows

If Others, Specify: ______________________________________________________________

8) Would you like to watch the earlier shows telecasted by Doordarshan? Yes No If Yes, which ones?

9)

Do you think Doordarshan should go for Re-Branding? Yes No

10) If Yes what are the things you would like Doordarshan to change? Content Marketing Promotion Others If Others, Specify:

All of the Above