Doordarshan should create quality content, improve revenue generation: Irani

Public broadcaster Doordarshan should create quality content and improve its revenue generation through advertisement, Union Minister Smriti Irani said Monday.

The information and broadcasting minister said that India was set to have 530 million smartphone users by end of this year, second only to China and more than 40 per cent of content consumption was happening online.

She said that the amount spent on advertising was expected to grow this year as compared to the last year.

"Doordarshan should leverage the reach created by DD Free Dish to create quality content and improve the revenue generation through advertisement and ease the burden on the taxpayers," the minister was quoted as saying in an official release.

The minister made the remarks while addressing the inaugural ceremony of the 24th International Conference & Exhibition on Terrestrial and Satellite Broadcasting with the theme Non Linear Broadcasting Technologies & Business Models-- Broadcast Engineers Society (BES EXPO 2018).

She said that strength of broadcasting sector in India should be seen not by the number of channels available but by the quality of content provided by it.

She also requested Broadcast Engineering Society to train all of the Broadcast Engineering staff of Prasar Bharati.

Irani, along with the other dignitaries, also felicitated the winners of the awards constituted by Broadcast Engineering Society in various categories such as broadcasting, engineering, training and innovation.

Exhibiting companies at BES Expo included those from Australia, Austria, Canada, China, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea, Netherlands, Norway, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, the UK and the US.