'Prasar Bharti lost Rs 9.98 cr due to bad marketing'
Public broadcaster Prasar Bharti suffered a cash loss of Rs 9.98 crore as it generated Rs 51.59 crore less from telecasting cricket matches during October- December 2004 due to lack of proper marketing plan, the Comptroller and Auditor General of ...
By PTI |
NEW DELHI: Public broadcaster Prasar Bharti suffered a cash loss of Rs 9.98 crore as it generated Rs 51.59 crore less from telecasting cricket matches during October- December 2004 due to lack of proper marketing plan, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India said on Monday.
"Audit scrutiny (in March 2006) brought out that Prasar Bharti paid to BCCI on pro-rata basis Rs 79.51 crore for the cricket matches telecast during October-December 2004, against which it generated revenue of Rs 69.53 crore, resulting in a loss of Rs 9.98 crore," the CAG said in its latest report.
Actual cash loss would have been even more, if marginal costs that Prasar Bharti must have incurred on the telecast were taken into account, CAG said in the report tabled in Parliament on Monday.
Further analysis revealed that instead of charging the advertisement rates as projected at the time of bidding, Prasar Bharti had charged different rates from different agencies, the report said.
The rates charged from some agencies were as low as Rs 0.08 lakh for 10 seconds, against the projected rate of Rs 0.50 lakh for test cricket, while for one-day matches the broadcaster took Rs 0.18 lakh for 10 seconds against Rs 1.50 lakh.
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"Prasar Bharti failed to provide reason for charging lower rates from different agencies. Had the rates been charged as projected, Prasar Bharti would have generated total revenue of Rs 121.12 crore," CAG said. In response to the CAG's observation, the Information and Broadcasting Ministry had said in October 2006 that the projected rates were for deciding the amount to be quoted for BCCI cricket bid for the period of five years, 2004-2008, and were not the final rates.
As such, they can not be made the basis for calculation of loss, it added. The ministry had said that BCCI had cancelled 2004-08 bid and the projected rates were completely redundant.
Further, Prasar Bharti had acquired these cricketing rights in a piecemeal manner almost overnight and especially during weekend, giving no time for a systematic and scientific marketing, the broadcaster said.
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Sports channels look at profit and loss in the long-term perspective and not in isolation, the ministry had said adding the public broadcaster had the authority to offer the negotiable rates to agencies. CAG, however, dismissed the reply as untenable.Start a SIP with as low as ₹500 with ET Money App!
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