Missed Opportunities by PTV by Moin Ansari

Pakistan Television: Missed Opportunities: Fire the failed CEO. Hire a World class media leader for the pathetic PTV

LOST OPPORTUNITY: PTV had the unique opportunity to become a world class Television News station; however it has been asleep at the wheel.

BAD LEADERSHIP AT PTV: The problem with PTV is that it does not “THINK BIG”, and the leaders of PTV have no concept of the opportunities available in “the global village”. Actually the leaders of PTV cannot “think”. Aslam Azhar chaired the golden period of PTV. That era is gone and it has been a series of political appointments of PTV leadership that has done nothing for media in Pakistan. The sets of PTV are dilapidated and PTV uniforms are pathetic. In the aftermath of 911 the entire world was watching Kabul and Islamabad. PTV forgot and was unable to know the basics of geography to know that the only road to Kabul came from Islamabad. Apart from the advantage of geography, language, culture, and religion, PTV had the links and should have had the infrastructure to provide live and in depth coverage of the war in Afghanistan. PTV was asleep at the wheel.

NO CREATIVITY TO HALT DOWNWARD SPIRAL: It took an insignificant, distant but energetic and entrepreneurial Al-Jazeera to capture the imagination of the Middle East and provide in depth and sensational coverage of the war in Afghanistan. PTV was asleep at the wheel.

INABILITY TO LEARN FROM OTHER NETWORKS: It is to be remembered that PTV was the first TV station in South Asia, and the Middle East but was unable to take the lead in today’s media race. PTV has been asleep at the wheel. PTV could have produced and broadcast Arabic and Persian programs to take advantage of the huge and lucrative Arab and Asian markets, but has been unable to do anything to earn real dollars for Pakistan. PTV has been asleep at the wheel.

HUGE INDIAN AND MIDDLE EASTERN MARKET NOT TAKEN ADVANTAGE OF: PTV could have and should have taken advantage of the Indian market a natural source of revenue and audience by broadcasting news and views in the regional languages of India–Gujrati, Bengali, Hindi, but was too busy in local power struggles to think of these lucrative deals.

PTV could offer online courses and Internet access to its audience. Pakistanis in the USA including the author of this article sent proposals on this matter, but PTV was asleep at the wheel.

MIDDLE EASTERN MARKET? Today PTV should have offices and studios in every major Arab city, recruiting local talent, talking advantage of the training opportunities and setting up local language programs, however the PTV charter is narrow and focused only on dumb and useless “soap operas” (“dramas”).

MOUTHPIECE OF THE MUSLIM WORLD: PTV had the advantage of language and could be mouthpiece for the Muslim world, but it is asleep at the wheel.

CARTOONS FOR CHILDREN: PTV should offer and should be able to create Pakistani and Muslim cartoons for children and market Pakistani merchandise to the overseas audience. However it is totally unaware of the concepts of international marketing.

PATHETIC WEBSITE: Even the website of PTV leaves much to be desired. A High School dropout could design a better website, where at least the address and contact numbers are accurate. Giving out e-mail address of hotmail.com accounts is so very unprofessional.

EXPORT HELP: PTV should be in the forefront to educate our exporters on the latest marketing techniques to boost exports. The only thing PTV exports are useless soaps that are actually pirated, so PTV does not get the revenue. PTV should be making CDs, and DVDs, and using surround sound technology and investing in HDTV. Right now, it has no concept of where the world is moving towards, and is clueless about the tremendous opportunities out there in the “global village.”

FAILED THE CURRENT GOVERNMENT IN PROPAGANDA BATTLE: PTV has failed President Musharraf and present government. As a government owned network it could have waged a full throttled “war” against GEO, ARY and Aaj. However it was a dismal failure. As a result Geo had to be silenced.

HORRIBLE LANGUAGE AND COMMUNICATION SKILLS: PTV cannot or does not use Urdu. Unlike Geo or ARY, all PTV anchors use a mixture of bad accented and very poor English and bad adulterated Urdu. Like all programs of PTV it shows incompetence at the highest level.

RECAPTURE DRAMA MARKET: PTV dramas can provide a nice export market, but instead of capitalizing on the ready market in India, PTV got sucked into Soaps and lost its monopoly of dramas. Can it nor find more Haseena Moins? Pakistan is a big country and PTV can farm out dramas and earn a lot of revenue specially if it dubbs its dramas in Gujrati, Hindi, Saraiki, Bengali, Arabic, Farsi and other major languages of the world.

PTV PRIME? PTV Prime was taking PTV in the right direction but PTV yanked the contract from them. PTV should be the voice of Pakistan answering all the questions the foreign media has. It should be collaborating with America, Australian, Chinese and Indian channels to provide clips. It should be posting clips on You Tube. It should be sending its reporters to the White House Press Corps. PTV should be the first in the “war of ideas”. PTV should be gleaning the internet for book reviews for and against Pakistan. PTV should be publishing White Papers and producing documentaries for the History Channel in America. PTV should be launching its own history channel. Pakistan is the home of the Indus Valley, Ghakkar, Soan Valley, Baluch Mehergarh, Gandhara, Harappa, Modenajado civilizations. Pakistan has the highest mountains and huge deserts. Where are the PTV documentaries on our geography and our Sufi saints and our poets and philosophers?

FIRE CEO OF PTV: President Musharraf should hire an internationally known leader of a major network and pay him/her in Dollars to see how we can transform PTV into an international channel that can and should provide Dollars to Pakistan and Pakistanis.

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