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In the hope
of turning Doordarshan’s international channel, DD-World, into
a pay channel, Prasar Bharati has floated a second tender within
two months to seek distributors for foreign markets. As the previous
tender, which was floated around two months ago, did not attract
even a single bidder from the distribution and marketing networks,
Prasar Bharati has now come out with a modified tender document.
The new document is more market-friendly, according to Prasar Bharati
officials.
The newly floated
tender, which has set a deadline of October 30 for receiving applications,
is meant for the marketing and distribution of DD-World in the US,
Canada, UK, rest of Europe and Australia. The bid for each market
needs to be submitted separately. With no floor price set for the
tender, bidders are free to quote any minimum guarantee for distributing
and marketing the channel.
According to the tender document, Prasar Bharati and the successful
applicant for each market would work out a revenue-sharing formula.
In fact, the tender form requires every applicant to specify his
business and revenue-sharing plans for five years. While bidders
will have to make a deposit of $1,000 towards earnest money, the
company to which the contract is awarded will have to pay 10 per
cent of the minimum guarantee quoted by it, as down payment. Another
10 per cent of the minimum guarantee is to be paid to Prasar Bharati
as bank guarantee within 30 days of signing of the agreement. The
remaining payment by the successful bidder has to be made in several
installments.
The distribution
of DD-World in all the markets is open for the Direct-to-Home (DTH)
platform and also for cable networks. According to the tender document,
the channel is transmitted through the PAS-10 satellite. The successful
bidder will have to provide customer management services including
distribution of the channel to the subscribers, billing, and collection
of payment. The successful bidder will have to maintain a database
of all subscribers and supply details to DD every month. The successful
bidder will have to market the channel and book advertisements for
the channel locally, as well as do the billing and collect the advertisement
revenues.
It is important
for the channel to find distributors in the overseas market in order
to go pay. In the absence of a distributor network in that market,
DD World has to remain a free-to-air channel, thereby losing out
on subscription-based revenue. Therefore, when the DD-World tender
did not receive any application two months ago, Prasar Bharati decided
to opt for a re-tendering process. DD World, once it goes pay, will
be the second channel in the DD bouquet to go pay. Last year, DD
Sports had turned pay during Olympics 2000. So far, DD World has
a formal distribution network arrangement only in the Middle-East,
where a local cable network distributes the channel. In that region,
it’s a government to government arrangement, according to a
Prasar Bharati official.
However, it’s
not a pay platform there. Since DD has already ventured on the market-friendly
exercise by rationalising the rate cards and revising the telecast
fee for some of its channels including DD1 and DD Metro, DD-World
is hopeful of finding takers in its second effort to go pay.
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