Kamath has hands full on his first day in Prasar Bharati

On his first day as Prasar Bharati Corporation chairman, M.V. Kamath couldn’t have asked for more. In terms of money, CEO K.S. Sarma ha...

On his first day as Prasar Bharati Corporation chairman, M.V. Kamath couldn’t have asked for more. In terms of money, CEO K.S. Sarma had just signed the cricket deal of his life, without spending a penny.

As far as viewership of Doordarshan went, Kamath was himself surprised at its reach. ‘‘I had no idea that DD National is viewed by 289 million viewers, which is more than the population of the USA,’’ he said.

But he was clear about one thing: PYTs in bikinis were best left to other channels. ‘‘We are dependent on government money so we have to be careful not to offend anybody. We don’t take sides,’’ Kamath said.

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Kamath had a word for other channels too. ‘‘As an outsider, I was appaled at the manner in which the Gujarat riots were handled. Bodies after bodies, identified for the purpose of the viewers. I don’t think in the US television networks showed lives destroyed in 9/11 attack,’’ said Kamath.

CEO K.S. Sarma said the Prasar Bharati Corporation has made an arrangement with Global Cricket Corporation (GCC) for the terrestrial rights of 16 matches live on DD’s main channel. Another 27 matches will be shown on DD’s Metro channel on a deferred basis, a day after the event, Sarma informed.

DD is demanding nearly one and half times the telecast fee for the matches. The idea behind telecasting the matches twice is twofold. One was to improve the viewership of DD-Metro that has sunk to an all-time low. The second was to show the repeats at a time convenient to everyone.

The net money that the Corporation will get as minimum guarantee pledged by Nimbus, the air-time marketing agent of WCC, is Rs 23 crores.

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The Prasar Bharati Board which met today took the following decisions: An Ombudsman for the corporation (retired Supreme Court judge full-time) to look into arbitration cases; collaborations with Voice of America and BBC radio with an eye on the pravasis.