Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Smriti Irani on Monday asked the state-run Doordarshan TV to ramp up its revenue through advertisement to ease burden on the taxpayers.
The strength of broadcasting sector in the country should be seen by the quality of content produced and not by the number of channels available, Irani said at the inaugural ceremony of the 24th International Conference and Exhibition on Terrestrial and Satellite Broadcasting.
"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," a release quoted her as saying.
The total advertising spend was expected to grow to 12.5 per cent this year from 9.6 per last year, she added.
The theme of the conference was 'Non Linear Broadcasting Technologies and Business Models' -- (Broadcast Engineers Society) BES EXPO 2018.
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The minister also said that the number of smartphone users in India was set to attain the 530 million-mark by the end of this year, second only to China.
--IANS
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