The choice of the viewer will be limitless Will this challenge that PTV faces with all its channels become frustrating with time? Will that start eroding swiftly its revenue, if the process has not started already?
AS TV expands in Pakistan, it is perhaps inevitable that PTV reaches out to more people but as technology turns simpler and more affordable the people swing out of the PTV network .so as to be able to spend the same time viewing better TV channels. Exciting, credible professionally far more thorough, and when it comes to news for example, timely that comprehensive. Sometimes one wonders about the nature of the strategy that PTV's planners have for the future. Or rather the future that is already here, the present.
One gets these thoughts often while watching the PTV Khabarnama and its current affairs programmes, .Not just the content but also the presentation that can either be awful, gaudy or so insipid and trite, that one fails to understand whether it realises how far behind it can be, as compared to the others. And the point that it has a blatantly expressed official point of view ,or official claim and rhetoric, makes it worse .Some times one feels that were it not for the old hits of PTV, (in music and drama for example) this treasure that it has ,its attraction on its present form would be much lower than what one can imagine.
A reason why I am focusing on PTV here is a report that an English daily from Lahore carried earlier this month, This news report was responded to very promptly the next day by the Information Ministry. The central theme was the financial losses of the PTV caused by a drop in the advertising revenues of PTV 1, the main entertainment channel. The newspaper said that there had been a drop of nearly Rs350million in advertising revenue in the last nine months (July-March period) The Information Ministry responded that the figure was nearly Rs 250 million.
The news report captioned "PTV losses trigger blame "began thus". A deficit of Rs350 million which is adversely affecting the financial discipline of the state-owned television network, has triggered a blame game between the sitting and the former top officials of the electronic media conglomerate"
This report said that "the PTV Board of Directors in its last meeting held in April expressed serious concerns over the low income generation during the current financial year and called for immediate measures to overcome the financial issues" Now I don't wish to go into the details of the story (space constraints after all), but there are some references that need to be reproduced here: That, for instance, the ban on tobacco advertising has been causing a revenue loss of Rs150-180 million annually to PTV; that the STN channel is operating at a loss, that the income from advertisements on PTV 1 and PTV World have declined disturbingly; that the PTV management wants compensation for the entire loss from the government for what has been described as "non profitable news and current affairs Two thoughts come to mind right away: how does one measure profitability, from an official point of view, from news and current affairs programmes? and secondly one is reminded of the National Press Trust newspapers (English and Urdu) which were always a question mark when it came to utility, credibility and profitability.
Interestingly, there are reports now that indicate that there is going on a blame game too: Who is responsible for the financial loss and Managing Director Akhtar Waqar Azeem 's performance is being viewed in this context. The Information Ministry also issued a press release promptly within 24 hours to explain its point of view. There was also a press release from the Chief Executive of the Sports Star International, an organisation which was awarded a contract for Channel, 3 and then the contract was reversed. The SSI argued that it was the victim of PTV 's whimsical policies. Meanwhile, yet another report in the daily Nation says that the PTV managing director "faces removal". No comments at this stage except that it makes one wonder, and sadly so, if PTV, while the going gets sharply competitive, is "trapped in such quicksand?"
The Nation in its editorial comment on 19th May on the subject of the "MD's removal" has said that the "he federal Information ministry sent a summary to the PM secretariat for the removal of the present MD PTV, which has been approved and implemented. The MD was implicitly held responsible for causing PTV a Rs 350 million loss that is likely to reach Rs450 million by the end of this financial year. The mere replacement of the MD will resolve the financial crisis, given the culture of mediocrity prevailing in PTV for some time." After commenting on the state of PTV today despite its plus points the editorial concludes that "rather than shift blame to individuals or tighten regulations for the private channels or the cable operators, the government must focus on improving the quality of the PTV programmes to gain competitive advantages over its rival channels, and most importantly allow PTV to establish its credibility as a news organisation rather than a forum for government propaganda."
But there is the other side to the PTV story, which is reflected by an APP story which appeared late April and said that PTV was to be made available to Pakistanis in Hong Kong. In this item datelined Hong Kong, it was stated that the Federal Information Minister, Shaikh Rashid Ahmed, had said that the government would take measures to ensure that Pakistanis in Hong Kong were also able to watch PTV programmes. He added that in view of the request of Pakistanis, efforts would be made to provide the five PTV channels in Hong Kong. This reflects the fact that the PTV is expanding its territory and seeking to reach out to Pakistanis and non Pakistanis abroad.
Here the minister said that the government was pursuing a liberal information policy and licences were issued to seven private channels and 14 more licences were to be issued to more private channels. He further disclosed that for the first time PTV would come up with DTH(direct to Home )service with 300 channels. And that the ARY and the Geo have also been allowed this service. In passing one may refer to another news report / which says that the PEMRA is going slow on drafting the amendments in the ordinance. So this a situation that needs to be watched
When I spoke of the Santosh Kumar programme last week I made the mistake of saying that I saw it on a PTV channel. That error is regretted as the programme was in the Sunehray Log series of the ARY digital channel .I realised it on Sunday evening when while switching channels I realised that Sunehray Log was on ARY, and this week the focus was on that sensational heroine of yesteryears, Neelo. She married the famous writer and director Riaz Shahid, and whose son Shan is a popular film hero today. I could only see some of the last few minutes of the programme, and I wonder whether these and other such programmes would be available on video cassettes or DVDs in course of time. Infact there are many musical programmes, and plays that could easily be marketed in this way, and it is not just entertainment that I am referring to. Many political and socio economic subjects have created TV programmes of lasting or longer value. Particularly since the advent of the private channels in this country.
Let me make a confession. When it comes to selecting what I will focus upon in this column I am carried away by what I will describe as the sheer "quantum" of TV viewing, and realise that all that I have watched cannot be condensed and commented upon as may be warranted. We live in very grim, weight y times, where with the amount of media that even Pakistani society has is enormous, and impossible to monitor. I have a feeling that with the way our channels are coming up, and with the way society is opening up, and people's perceptions changing, with the world becoming a global village, in a sense, and with terrorism, and conflict, and the war for values assuming even invisible dimensions, and considerations, perhaps our media will take a long time to be properly equipped for the battle that has begun. It is a media battle too. Media imperialism unfolding itself?
I had originally wanted to focus in detail on some very strong serious shows like 'Follow up with Fahd' (Geo Channel), Kamran Khan Key Sath (Geo), Ek Din Geo Key Sath (Rasul Baksh Palejo this week),Capital Talk with Hamid Mir on the Zaheer Abbas interview with Iqbal Baig on Indus TV, on Career on Line, Dr Shahid Masood in Views on News, when he talked to a former ISI chief, Lt. Gen(r) Hamid Gul, once again on the internal situation in the country, and on the candour and quality of some of the news coverage that these private channels have been able to produce.
Fahd was excellent with his focus on the killing of Pakistanis in Macedonia story, Kamran focus on the Shoaib Akhtar in London context was enjoyable and candid, the Palejo interview was revealing, the talk with the former ISI chief as always thought provoking about what kind of scenario could unfold, the talk with Zaheer Abbas about cricket reflecting the way in which cricket in Pakistan is going through a disgraceful period in a way .No one seems to be in charge really, Honestly speaking, each of these programmes deserves a lot more attention, if only for the subjects that they deal with. But let me sign off with a very enjoyable interview that I saw on a busy Sunday Midday Indus programme. It was an interview with a woman, strong willed and outspoken, Tanveer Fatima who is planning to make a film(or is it a Television play?) called Kasak. She is a set designer, producer and director and it made me curious, How does one see her work? That's the challenge with all these channels.