Prasar Bharati revenue for first half of FY'12 crosses Rs 6 bn

NEW DELHI: Prasar Bharati earned total revenues of Rs 6.26 billion until September 2011 during the current fiscal year, of which Rs 4.89 billion and Rs 1.64 billion came from commercial revenues of Doordarshan and All India Radio (AIR) respectively.

Prasar Bharati sources said that a total of Rs 164.6 million came from other resources.

These sources told indiantelevision.com that this showed a steady rise in the revenues over the past four years.

The sources said that the net revenue for the fiscal 2010-11 - subject to reconciliation - was Rs 12.76 billion of which Rs 9.5 billion came from DD and Rs 2.76 billion came from AIR as net commercial revenue. A total of Rs 505.8 million came from other resources.

The revenue in 2009-10 was Rs 11.46 billion, of which the net commercial revenue from DD and AIR was Rs 8.28 billion and Rs 2.16 billion respectively, with Rs 1.02 billion coming from other resources.

The sources added that Prasar Bharati spent an amount of Rs 202.5 million till September this year towards maintenance and renovation of their buildings and installations for both DD and AIR.

Prasar Bharati?s expenses towards this in the past years have been Rs 1.04 billion in 2010-11 on account of the Commonwealth Games, Rs 763.8 million for 2009-10, and Rs 579.1 million in 2008-09. The figures for 2010-11 are subject to reconciliation.

Interestingly, Prasar Bharati itself owed a total amount of Rs 13.05 billion as on 31 March 2011 to various Ministries and Departments on account of Space segment and Spectrum charges, for which waiver has been sought by the Group of Ministers on Prasar Bharati.

While All India Radio owed Rs 2.11 billion, Doordarshan owed Rs 10.94 billion on account of Space segment and Spectrum Charges.

AIR and DD owe Rs 324 million and Rs 4.47 billion as spectrum charges respectively to the WPC Wing of the Department of Telecommunication. Similarly, DD and AIR have to pay Rs 6.47 billion and Rs 1.79 billion as Space Segment charges to the Indian Space Research Organisation.