Prasar Bharati, India’s public broadcasting agency, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Empressa de Brazil Communicacao (EBC), where it will exchange TV and radio news, programs on football, culture, cuisine, carnivals and drama and co-produce shows.
This is the agency’s first agreement with a South American company and was signed between Jawhar Sircar, the CEO of Prasar Bharati and EBC’s vice president Mario in Brazil. The MoU will also cover a list of Indian programs to be broadcast on EBC and include documentaries, science programs, TV shows and Portuguese programs from Goa.
In June last year, Prasar Bharati appointed Surya Prakash as its chairman on a full time basis.
Similar pact with Russian TV
In December last year, the agency signed a pact with Digital Television Russia (DTR), the commercial arm of RTS, a Russian media company to jointly produce and exchange TV programs and related services, according to a TOI report. This would allow production, marketing and distribution of content related to art, culture, trade and science, research and technology, news exchange, and setting up a joint venture for commercial cooperation in broadcasting.
A New Indian Express report states that the MoU would give Doordarshan Russian programs for free or at a low cost, whereas DD would offer whole series of Indian programs to be telecast by DTR. DD and DTR got the dubbing and subtitling rights for the Russian and Indian programs, and would also create spots and promos.
India-China TV pact
In May 2015, India and China signed 24 agreements, which would include sectors like railways and education, a space cooperation outline, and a broadcast tie up with Doordarshan and the Chinese state run China Central Television (CCTV) News. CCTV was founded in 1958 and comes under the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television in China. It has 45 channels which broadcast different programs.
DD’s FreeDish service
Last month, government owned broadcaster Doordarshan said that it was set to carry 112 channels on its DTH service FreeDish by March end. FreeDish is a free to air (FTA) DTH service, which recently added Big Magic to its service last month, after an initial run with the DTH service before.
Image Credit: Prasar Bharati
