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| Mr. Kamran Wajih - MD Sales and Marketing, PTV |
Q. Why does PTV show ads, whereas being a Public TV it shouldn't?
K.W: PTV is a corporation with approximately 7000 employees. This corporation can not only be run on the revenue which is allocated to public TV broadcasts. Therefore to keep PTV well and running, revenue is generated through ad’s which are televised. It is true that public tv broadcasters should be independent enough and not depend on any external sources of revenue but the cost of maintaining such a huge network is monumental and it is essential to obtain extra revenue to cover it. Another major point is that most private tv channels fail to pay their employees on time and there is a general element of discontent amongst the employees however at PTV employees are handed their monthly cheques promptly and are not harassed over money as most media employees are. the extra revenue still does not give PTV the benefit of a huge profit and PTV broke even a short while back and now makes minimal profits only.
Q. PTV for very long was the only channel in Pakistan. Do you feel that PTV was able to play an effective role that it was needed to in our society and has it fulfilled its obligation in the public TV scenario?
K.W: PTV was the pioneer of electronic media in Pakistan and it is responsible for the growth of this industry in Pakistan. PTV is the first and only public TV channel of Pakistan. It has played its role in preserving the cultural heritage of our country. There are shows on classical music and a whole archive collection that is used as a reference by many tv channels. Most of the staff that works for private TV channels these days has been associated with PTV in the past. The training and technical knowledge has been acquired through PTV.All the famous artist like Noor Jehan, Waheed Murad, Strings, Junoon owe their success to PTV.PTV has been educating, informing and entertaining the people of Pakistan and will continue to do so.
Q. What are your comments on the recent controversy between Geo and PTV over the broadcasting rights of Cricket World Cup, 2011?
K.W: There is a misconception among people that PTV was wrongly broadcasting the world cup. PTV has terrestrial rights for showing the world cup and it has acquired a proper license from ICC. Geo license had expired and therefore Pemra took action against it. It was nothing to do with PTV.
Q. Why wasn't information handed out to us when we came earlier to PTV?
K.W: Due to the deteriorating security conditions in the country, information is not handed out so easily to the citizens of the country as is their right. Therefore when somebody barges into an organization without any proper references or contacts and asks for any sort of information they are often turned away or discouraged from doing so. It is the right of every citizen to obtain any sort of information from any government headed institution and this can be done if the information is obtained from the right sources and through a proper process.
- Compiled by Ayesha and Tasneem
