MUMBAI: Indian pubcaster Prasar Bharati has entered into an agreement with Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), Australia?s national broadcaster, which will allow both entities to show each other?s content to their audiences and also cooperate in other areas of programming.

The agreement was signed last week when a delegation of senior Prasar Bharati officials visited Australia.

Australian Minister for Arts and Regional Development Simon Crean, currently in India said the signing of a MoU between ABC and Prasar Bharati will help build a stronger people-to-people and media partnership between the two countries.

"One of the most important goals for the Australia-India relationship is to understand each other better. The ABC and Prasar Bharati will share program content by utilising the extensive Doordarshan and ABC networks, allowing audiences in India and Australia to develop a more accurate and up-to-date appreciation of contemporary developments in the other country," said Crean after a meeting with Prasar Bharati CEO Jawhar Sircar.

"This MoU will advance the Australia in the Asian Century White Paper?s commitment to build stronger, deeper and broader cultural links between Australia and India, including through collaboration between our arts, cultural and media organisations," he said.

The Australian minister said the agreement could also build on Oz Fest, the biggest Australian cultural festival ever staged in India.

"With over 100 events in 18 cities across India, Oz Fest exposes Indians to contemporary Australia. I am delighted that Doordarshan has supported Oz Fest by filming and broadcasting the Oz Fest opening concert in New Delhi on 16 October and a major concert in Bhubaneswar on 20 October, giving Indian audiences the chance to see some of the Australian best Indigenous performers, Gurrumul Yunupingu and Mark Atkins," Crean said.

MUMBAI: The all new revenue consciousness is making public broadcaster Prasar Bharati to get a bigger share of advertising from the government and public sector undertakings (PSUs) on its channels, Prasar Bharati CEO Jawhar Sircar told Mint newspaper in an interview.

He also said Prasar Bharati needs to sell ad spots on All India Ratio (AIR), DD News and DD main channel separately and for this purpose, repositioning and freshening up of DD News is under way.

The public broadcaster is planning to revamp its marketing channel. It will consists of two additional directors general (DGs) and their teams in Mumbai, where the companies are located. "Currently, roughly half the revenue comes from the marketing wing and the other half from government commercial wing. There are a lot of doables on these two counts," Sircar said.

Sircar also mentioned that recent report by Crisil and NSSO (National Sample Survey Office) shows that the highest consumption is taking place in the rural areas. "Not even our worst rivals can doubt we have complete monopoly in that market, especially in villages with scattered houses. Even in the most difficult places, we have terrestrial transmission."

He also believes that marketing has to relate to reports that come out periodically that rural India spending is higher than urban India. "We are rural India. That nexus has to be drawn."

According to him, there are roughly 10 million DD Direct DTH homes. There would be another at least 15 million terrestrial-only DD homes. "So, 25 million viewers are completely loyal to us. All the private operators also carry DD."

Also, on DD Direct Plus, the company is planning to begin default advertisements. "All the private operators have these when you switch on their systems. So, unlike them, I cannot charge the customer, but I can charge the company," he added.

The company has set a target of getting Rs 20 billion revenue a year. Sircar told Mint that Prasar Bharati earned Rs 169 million from London Olympics. Simulcast properties like Coke Studio (an MTV show) helped the channel make Rs 2.5 million per episode while it made Rs 140 million because of simulcasting Satyamev Jayate, Sircar said.