In the time of smartphones and digital connectivity, there was an unprecedented fall felt in the number of radio listeners. However, it took a turn when Prime Minister Narendra Modi decided to start the monthly radio broadcast ‘Mann Ki Baat’ after coming to power in 2014. This was a unique attempt by Prime Minister to connect with the masses after coming to power in May 2014.
In this background, when people were interested in listening to the radio occasionally and preferred FM stations, PM Modi brought the focus of people to the national broadcaster ‘All India Radio (AIR)’. Due to his initiative, the monthly program ‘Mann ki Baat’ became famous. In these eight years, ‘AIR’ got benefited from PM’s monthly broadcast and started earning revenues from it.
Notably, according to the latest information revealed in two RTI queries filed by social activist Vivek Pandey, ‘Mann Ki Baat’ programme raised almost five times in revenue than the amount spent on advertising and promotions for this show. Now, ‘Mann Ki Baat’ has earned Rs 33.16 crores in revenues ever since 2014, while only around Rs 7.29 cores were spent on the promotion.
He received a response from the Office of the Additional Director General about the year-on-year gross revenue generated by ‘Mann Ki Baat’ from 2014 to October 2022.
Vivek Pandey also received another RTI response about the expenditure on promotions and advertising of the programme from the Central Bureau of Communication of the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting.
#RTI has revealed that PM Narendra Modi's #MannKiBaat program earned more revenue than the total expenditure incurred so far in promoting it. In which from 2014 to 2022, 5.88 crores were spent on this, whereas 33 crores 16 lakhs revenue has been earned till oct 2022#NarendraModi pic.twitter.com/UPrI6mh1dn
— Dr Vivek Pandey (@Vivekpandey21) January 1, 2023
Here, it is worth mentioning that the highest revenue of Rs 10.64 crore was generated in 2017-18 through the broadcast of ‘Mann Ki Baat’. The lowest Rs 1.02 crore was generated in 2020-21 due to Covid-19. In 2022-23, till October 2022 total 70 Lakh revenue was generated through this programme. While in 2021-22, total of Rs 1.74 crore revenue was generated through ‘Mann Ki Baat’, in 2019-20, the revenue of this programme stood at Rs 2.56 crore, Rs 7.47 crore revenue was generated in 2018-19, Rs 5.14 crore in 2016-17, Rs 2.81 crore in 2015-16 and Rs 1.16 crore was generated in 2014-15.
The RTI also revealed that there has been zero expenses on any kind of promotion in print media, television, radio, and on digital media in the last three years.
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