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DD
‘cautious’ on granting film slots to NFDC
Our Bureau
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NFDC owes DD around Rs 76 crore. Since it was mentioned
in the tender application that credit rating of the bidders
would be taken into consideration, the step to ask NFDC for
advance payment should not be seen as alarming
It’s
over to the CEO of Prasar Bharati, Anil Baijal, to take a
decision on granting the film slots on Doordarshan. Even as
the National Film Development Corporation (NFDC) emerged as
the highest bidder, DD is playing safe before granting it
the slots.
Says a senior DD official that even if Baijal selects NFDC
for the various film slots on DD-I and DD Metro, NFDC should
be asked to either pay the full bid money as advance or 100
per cent bank guarantee. In this case, NFDC has to shell out
Rs 81 lakh to DD before telecasting the films, if Baijal insists
on this clause.
The reason behind keeping this precautionary clause for NFDC
is that its rating is abysmally low in the DD record books.
"NFDC owes DD around Rs 76 crore,"the official adds.
Since it was mentioned in the tender application that credit
rating of the bidders would be taken into consideration, the
step to ask NFDC for advance payment should not be seen as
alarming, the official says. However, the official adds, "It’s
only a suggestion to the CEO."
There were other bidders too such as Creative Eye, Nimbus
and Pritish Nandy Communications (PNC) with bids in the range
of Rs 45 lakh to Rs 55 lakh. Whether the movie slots-Friday
and Saturday on DD-I and Saturday and Sunday on DD-II-are
granted to NFDC or anybody else will be known in a few days
.Although DD was surprised to find NFDC back in the pack despite
it already owing DD a considerable sum, NFDC has a different
story to narrate. On the payment default to DD, an NFDC official
says that DD too has to make payments to NFDC.
According to the official, NFDC provided repackaging services
for DD Metro, DD Sports, etc. He adds, "Reconciliation
for the payments receivable by NFDC from DD and from NFDC
by DD is done periodically every year and thereafter outstandings
are cleared." NFDC, which has been supplying films to
DD since 1993, has a revenue-sharing arrangement with DD whereby
70 per cent goes to DD and 30 per cent to NFDC.
DD is looking for "quality and relatively new films"
in the face of competition from private channels such as Star,
Zee and Sony. A DD official had said earlier that besides
defaulting on payment, NFDC was not offering the kind of films
that DD wanted to show now. Therefore the disappointment in
finding NFDC back as a high bidder.
In the recent round of bidding, no bidder has given a list
of films to be telecast. But, they would adhere to the parameters
prescribed in the tender document.
Nivedita Mookerji
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