New Delhi : For those on a trip down nostalgia lane, a plan is on the anvil, wherein one can own digital audio and video content from the government’s treasure-trove of archives. While this would be music to the ears of entertainment buffs, the move is seen helping state broadcasters turn around their fortunes.
The information and broadcasting ministry is in talks with six companies to digitise all the content lying in the archives of the national broadcaster Prasar Bharati and the Films Division by March 2016, a source with direct knowledge of the matter told Cogencis.
The plan is to sell the content from the archives to private broadcasters and the public at large, and the ministry wants to make this a sustainable source of revenue for the long-term, the source said. There is a definite demand for this content, the source said. National broadcasters All India Radio and Doordarshan are currently making losses, and are funded by the government to function. This could change with content sales becoming an important revenue source.
The ministry plans to sell 2,000 hours of audio and video content every year to broadcasters and to people at large through mobile phones based on Android and iOS-based applications, the source said. Prasar Bharati has audio and video content archives of over 300,000 hours. This is aired on the government’s All India Radio and Doordarshan channels.
The Films Division, which also functions under the ministry, has additional content archive that has documentaries, films, and television series. Established in 1948, the Films Division holds more than 8,000 titles of documentaries, short films and animation films.
Prasar Bharati, a statutory autonomous body established under the Prasar Bharati Act, has been operating as an entity since 1997. Content with the public service broadcaster is archived as per terms of the Prasar Bharati Act.
The All India Radio and Doordarshan, which earlier worked as media units under the broadcast ministry, became constituents of Prasar Bharati in 1997.
Amit Sharma
