Down the Drain

By Dr. M Ali Hamza | September 2020

In Pakistan, television broadcasting was introduced back in 1964 during President Ayub’s era. PTV started as a private venture. It was then nationalized during Mr Bhutto’s era. Like Pakistan Steel Mills and Pakistan International Airlines, the present condition of Pakistan Television, a public-owned enterprise, is nothing but miserable. If PTV is another unsuccessful government owned enterprise, who turned the applecart? Before answering this, we must take a look at the history of TV in Pakistan.

The idea of establishing a media and television industry in Pakistan was conceived in late 1956 and created by the privately set up national education commission. Wajid Ali, the industrialist, reached a milestone in 1961 after establishing a private television broadcasting company with the cooperation of Nippon Electric Company (NEC) of Japan and Thomas Television International of the United Kingdom. On 26 November 1964, the first-ever news broadcast was sent out by PTV and was beamed as a black and white transmission.

The organization remained under private sector management with more than half of the shares sold to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. Certain parameters and policies were regulated at state level, whereas the operations were run by a private party. This was and is the same model used by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). TV in Pakistan was nationalized and brought under complete government-ownership by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s government. Like many other industries, PTV moved from the private sector to being a totally public broadcasting entity. When PTV was nationalized, its operations and management became a state subject. Today PTV is a liability instead of an asset.

Ziauddin Jeddi, former sales controller, PTV, recalls the countless problems that arose when it came to securing advertising in the early days of PTV, mainly because the concept was a new-one. Until then commercials only appeared on cinema screens. Strangely, in the first years revenue was beyond imagination as almost the entire business community from Karachi to Peshawar was eager to advertise on television. The first five years are always very crucial for any new business, but PTV was profitable right from the first year and remained so for a long time.

According to data from PTV, between 1966 and 1967, approximately 62 hours of commercials were aired. This number increased by more than 233% the following year, reaching 220 hours, and then doubled in the subsequent year. Within about 10 years, programs, such as Neelam Ghar and Khabarnama, were introduced in addition to several drama serials that are remembered to this day. A TV licence fee was introduced in 1970, which resulted in a sizable revenue stream, in addition to advertising revenue. The sectors that advertised on PTV the most were food, drinks and powdered milk (29.6%), personal care products (12.8%), clothing (7%), electronic appliances (6.9%), pharmaceutical products (6.8%), government advertising (5.6%) and cigarettes (4.1%). Though in the 1990s the penetration of foreign satellite channels had increased significantly and PTV’s viewership was impacted to some extent, its advertising revenue, for the most part, was not.

The real invasion began in the early 2000s with a plethora of local satellite channels after the opening up of the media by President Musharraf; their advent signaled the beginning of the end of PTV’s market leadership. By 2002, 20% of advertising spend went to satellite TV and the remainder went to PTV; by 2004, the figure for spending on satellite channels reached almost 50%. In 2008, PTV commanded only 24% of the share and, within the next five years, by FY 2012-13, PTV’s leadership days were over. In 2017, PTV was left with a mere 5% the total ad spend.

Although today it seems easy to dismiss PTV, it is important to remember that the organization served as a training ground for many producers, directors, writers and other technicians who went on to work at, or establish, the channels that are popular today. But what’s wrong with PTV? Why is unable to attract audiences and get the support of advertisers? It is not the conservative censorship policy. The standards of program production in General Zia’s time were still competitive. If Fifty-Fifty, Angan Tedha, Neelam Ghar, Kasoti, etc., were to be redone today, they would still catch the market. PTV has simply become incompetent, suffering from severe over-staffing. It is a victims of intellectual numbness and has been relegated to another state-run operation where merit does not matter and bureaucracy reigns supreme. Many good organizations in Pakistan have gone down the drain. PTV is one.

Lahore

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