Iranian Esfahan TV Director Explains Programmes, Audience Research
In a special 10-minute video report on 19 August, Iranian Esfahan provincial TV said that 29 Mordad, 19 August, was the anniversary of the inauguration of Esfahan provincial TV. The presenter said Esfahan TV was the first provincial channel to open in the country some 12 years ago, after the capital Tehran.
Esfahan TV showed inside and outside pictures of the TV station including its personnel, studios, aerial masts, dishes and editing suits, cameras and sound-recording facilities. Esfahan TV broadcast a commentary saying that the station which was established on 19 August 1996 was aiming to focus on “indigenous culture and benefit from the province’s artistic, social and cultural resources”. The commentary also provided a history of radio and TV broadcasting in Esfahan. It said that Esfahan TV produced 187 hours of local TV programmes two years ago, however, its productions reached 1,517 hours last year.
The commentary concluded by saying: “Even though the setting up of the provincial TV channels is an appropriate and positive measure, certain problems and shortcomings exist which require further efforts in order to achieve the objectives behind the establishment of provincial TV channels”.
After the commentary, Esfahan TV carried a live studio interview with Ali Kalbasi, the managing director of Esfahan TV. Kalbasi said the objective behind the establishment of Esfahan provincial TV was “to strengthen religious beliefs and indigenous culture, the recognition of the efforts of thinkers, academics and freedom- loving scholars”. Esfahan TV’s top official said that the provincial channels also aimed “to create an atmosphere of optimism and happiness”. He said “another aim of the provincial TV channel in Esfahan was to encourage investment in tourism, agriculture and industry”. Kalbasi said: “We hope to have been able to respond to the people’s high level of demands.”
The managing director of Esfahan provincial TV said the channel’s commitment was to produce 1,400 hours of local TV programmes per year. He said Esfahan TV had produced far more than that. He said Esfahan TV had in some years even produced up to 1,600 hours of locally-produced programmes. He said most of the programmes were produced for radio and TV in the fields of agriculture, industry and tourism. He gave examples and mentioned a daily “Economics Today” and a twice-weekly “Economics Magazine”. He said the economic programmes focused on local investment, economic activities and highlighted the economy’s strong and weak points. He said economic experts from the province and other parts of the country were frequently invited to these programmes to discuss and debate economic issues.
On the channel’s strong and weak points, Kalbasi said “various opinion polls and audience research showed that 80 per cent of the people watched the provincial channel in Esfahan”. He said “the people are highly interested in their own channel because we focus on information dissemination, educational issues, entertainment and sports”. He gave examples of such programmes and on viewers’ complaints, Kalbasi said: “The people of Esfahan have high expectations from the channel. They would like to see more TV series produced locally in Esfahan. As I mentioned earlier, out of the 1,500 hours of locally-produced programmes, only 60 hours were allocated to TV serials. That is only 4 per cent which is indeed very low. We can show an episode of TV series each night.”
Kalbasi said Esfahan TV had just completed four TV series which were ready for broadcast and had also produced five movies, four of which were ready to be broadcast.
On the dissemination of local news and information, Kalbasi said Esfahan TV had three news bulletins each day all of which included provincial reports and the final bulletin at midnight local time also included national and international reports.
Originally published by Vision of the Islamic Republic of Iran Esfahan Provincial TV, Esfahan, in Persian 1200 19 Aug 08.
(c) 2008 BBC Monitoring Middle East. Provided by ProQuest LLC. All rights Reserved.