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| March 18, 2003 | Tuesday | Muharram 14, 1424 |
PTV not to sell prime time
ISLAMABAD, March 17: Pakistan Television Corporation (PTC) has decided not to sell the ‘prime time’ (8 p.m. to 9 p.m) of its transmission to any private production company in future.
The corporation has also decided to produce its own drama serials to be televised before Urdu news bulletin everyday.
The decision has been taken to compete with private channels and improve the performance of corporation’s drama production side,” the programme director, Shoukat Pervez, said.
He said the PTC board had decided that the prime time would not be sold to any private production company to televise their plays.
He said the former chairman of the PTC, Mirza Yousaf Baig, had taken the decision under which prime time of the transmission had been sold to private firms.
“The basic idea behind selling of the prime time was to generate income for the corporation and make it economically viable,” the official said.
He said the PTC earned Rs1.8 million daily for selling one hour-long prime time in which 18 minutes were specific for commercials.
He said contracts made with some private production companies in this regard would be expired by May 31 and after that the PTC would telecast its own drama serials.
However, a source said the total strength of producers in the PTC is over 200 while their performance is not up to the mark.
Contrary to this, the programme director dispelled the impression that the PTC producers were not working according to the requirements. He said only 20 per cent of the PTV time was consumed by private companies and 80 per cent was utilized by its own producers for different programmes.
He said the PTC was faced with shortage of producers, therefore, their number was being increased at Islamabad, Peshawar and Quetta centres.
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