Can public service announcements turn off even more TV viewers?

The revised guidelines are more specific though still pointless given that India has its own public service broadcaster Prasar Bharati for disseminating information on socially and nationally relevant topics. Prasar Bharati runs the Doordarshan Television Network and the All India Radio

Anupama, the super hit Hindi fiction show on Star Plus that’s been running on the channel successfully since 2020, can now probably become a part of Disney Star’s monthly filings to the information and broadcasting ministry as a show that boosts women empowerment. Zee TV could probably similarly register snippets of Main Hoon Aparajita launched by the channel last year narrating the tale of a single mother raising three self-reliant daughters.

For now, TV channels are taking comfort in the fact that public service messaging in their existing programmes can be counted if it meets the overall objective of public service broadcasting. Needless to say, the legal aides at broadcasting companies are reading the fine print to understand the implications of the revised rules and whether some of their current shows fit the bill. (StockPic)

Under the information and broadcasting ministry’s revised advisory on public service broadcasting issued on January 30, private satellite TV channels still need to air content on issues of national importance for a minimum of 30 minutes every day. Most large broadcasters say that the revision is a big climb down from the ministry’s earlier position of forcing down the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (Trai) recommendations where public service broadcasts were envisaged as standalone messages on the channels. Worried about loss of ad revenue and incurring additional costs on such programming, TV networks had shared their concerns with the ministry.

The revised guidelines are more specific though still pointless given that India has its own public service broadcaster Prasar Bharati for disseminating information on socially and nationally relevant topics. Prasar Bharati runs the Doordarshan Television Network and the All India Radio. Rajya Sabha MP Jawhar Sircar who first raised questions on the mandatory public service broadcast by private channels in Parliament in December, says the government may have toned down its ask, but the rules are still unnecessary. “We could have done without such a compulsion. There is Prasar Bharati and the DD channels for public service broadcasting,” says Sircar, former CEO of Prasar Bharati.

Themes that the ministry expects private channels to promote include education and literacy, agriculture and rural development, health and family welfare, science and technology, women’s welfare, protection of cultural heritage and national integration, among others. This list could be extended to include topics such as water conservation, disaster management etc. The ministry can issue general advisory from to time for the telecast of such content and channels “shall comply with the same.”

For now, TV channels are taking comfort in the fact that public service messaging in their existing programmes can be counted if it meets the overall objective of public service broadcasting. Needless to say, the legal aides at broadcasting companies are reading the fine print to understand the implications of the revised rules and whether some of their current shows fit the bill.

While the advisory says that “voluntary compliance and self-certification would be the guiding principles,” it has, in the same breath, asked broadcasters to submit a monthly report of such programming. TV channel executives are yet unclear on what the consequences of non-compliance would be.

The new rules, to be followed from the first of March, don’t just add to compliance burden, they have also come at a time when satellite television is going through one of its toughest challenges. These recommendations were first made by TRAI in 2008 as part of the Guidelines for Uplinking and Downlinking Satellite Channels. The entertainment landscape of the country has transformed since then.

Linear television is facing stiff competition from digital media – YouTube channels as well as homegrown and foreign streaming platforms such as Netflix, Hotstar and Amazon, among others. In the last couple of years, the number of pay TV viewers in India has declined by a few million as people are foregoing their cable TV or DTH subscriptions in favour of streaming subscriptions. The phenomenon – called cord cutting – is more common among the urban, affluent consumers. Not just that, television revenues have stagnated owing to legal tangles related to the New Tariff Order that had capped channel prices.

“In this race for grabbing eyeballs by various platforms, such a mandate specifically for TV channels doesn’t instil confidence as it queers the level playing field against them. No digital content platforms have been asked to follow public service message mandates,” says Sircar.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, a TV broadcast sector executive says that already TV audiences, especially, the young, are going to streaming services for their edgy content. “The new rule will only expedite the cord-cutting,” he says.

Yet others in the business are wondering if telecasting patriotic films on their channels will meet the advisory requirements. The answers are perhaps still blowing in the wind. And, though the advisory may be a dilution, it still seems an exercise in futility.