Doordarshan mum on exit poll contract

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, MAY 11.

Tight-lipped on the details of the contract with DRS on the exit poll telecast last evening soon after polling drew to a close for Assembly elections in five States, Doordarshan officials today said they were looking into the situation that has arisen from the screening of the same data on Zee TV.

According to Doordarshan's head of News and Current Affairs, Ms. Deepak Sandhu, she had met pollster and head of DRS, Mr. G. V. L. Narasimha Rao, today and discussed the matter with him. ``He will give to us in writing his position on the issue. Only then can we decide our course of action,'' she said, non-committal on whether a decision had been taken to withdraw payment to DRS.

While Doordarshan officials refused to divulge details about the nature of the contract with DRS, Mr. Rao said he had never signed any document granting exclusive rights of his exit polls to the public broadcaster. Describing his exit poll as a syndicated programme, he said worldover there is a practice of sharing data across television networks.

About his agreement with Doordarshan, Mr. Rao said: ``This was not a commissioned programme, but a sponsored one for which I have to pay DD Rs. 1.5 lakhs. Since I do not have the means to market the programme, I accepted their offer to market it for me. As per the agreement, the telecast fees would be deducted from the amount collected through advertisements. Then from the remaining amount, Doordarshan would foot my production costs. And if there was any money left, that was to be shared between DD and DRS.''

As for giving the marketing rights of a sponsored programme to Doordarshan, Mr. Rao explained: ``The last Assembly elections had shown that this is a difficult programme to market as barring exceptions, interest would by-and-large be confined to the States going to the polls. Add to this the fact that the programme was to go on air at a non-prime time hour on a weekday.''

Countering the allegation that he had given Zee the edge by allowing it to air the data 15 minutes before Doordarshan, the pollster said: ``Both channels began airing DRS data at 5-30 p.m. The only difference is that Zee began their programme on the Assembly elections at 5 p.m. I had given Zee a clear embargo. I was on the Doordarshan programme. Why would I kill my own programme?''

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