Doordharshan

In the spirit of my previous article, I was thinking of ways we can improve sports in our country. Most sports – apart from cricket – never get any media attention, except for old faithful Doodharshan. There is one problem however, Doordharshan sucks.

Sure it is available to everyone who has a television set, for FREE, but the quality of programming is just bad. As I write this article the ISBF World Snooker Championships are taking place in India. The only channel telecasting it is of course DD Sports. The problem is however, I was watching a frame of someone called Alfie (I kid you not) who made a break of 67. As soon as the frame finished, There was a 20 second commercial about the UGC and then I was watching a women’s tennis match. Don’t get me wrong, I like tennis, a lot but this wasn’t Wimbledon and I was in the middle if watching a snooker match. I watched for 20 seconds and got fed up, changed the channel. About 20 minutes later I turned back to DD sure enough they were telecasting snooker again only it was a different match.

Snooker may not be the most entertaining game to watch, and I don’t even blame them for switching to tennis. What bothers me is If i were watching the tennis match, I’d have to sit through frames of snooker. Now in this day and age, with so many channels fighting for the attention of viewers, how can DD afford to lose the few viewers that do watch?

It is not like Doordharshan is starved for money, the problem is no one cares. Years ago when DD was the only option, The programming was ok. The problem is as years have progressed, the quality has remained the same, if not gotten worse. Sure DD is no BBC, but why is that ?

They are both run by the State. The thing about the BBC is that it’s not free. You have to pay a subscription charge, which makes them accountable. Something that DD lacks. Another thing about the BBC is that it is run by people who understand the taste and need of their viewers. Watching a snooker match on the BBC made me realize this. BBC makes it interesting, they use hawk eye, there are replays from different angles; DD, well, it just telecasts the match, and gets a half baked moron to commentate.

Sure, they pass legislation to telecast cricket matches (sporting events of national importance) , but when it comes to other sports it’s okay to have shoddy programming and zero production value. Why bother right ? Who is going to advertise/ sponsor the ISBF World Snooker Championships right?

I hope that our politicians stand up and take note of all the inherent problems facing Doordharshan. It is still the only option for many Indians living in rural areas. Interest in Sport has to be generated at a grass root level, and that is the only way we will ever truly be a nation to reckon with, on any sporting field.