Doordarshan DTH platform to Expand

With the Prasar Bharati board approving the expansion of DD Direct Plus to 200 channels, many popular television channels will be available to viewers on Doordrashan’s free-to-air direct-to-home platform.

The board had Tuesday approved the working plan for immediate expansion of the Doordarshan’s DTH platform to 200 channels by the end of the year.

The ministry of information and broadcasting said that several broadcasters were interested in airing programmes through Doordrashan’s DTH platform due to low cost of distribution and wide reach. The platform has 59 channels at present.

The clearence of the detailed proposal for e-auction of channels in the DTH platform was also cleared by the board.

It also approved cross channel advertising from other broadcasters and DTH operators on Doordarshan channels.

The board cleared the way for out of court settlements of the more than Rs.400 crore worth of arbitration issues involving Prasar Bharati. The task will be taken up by a special high-level empowered team.

IPTV all set to transmit Doordarshan channels

The Information and Broadcasting Ministry has directed the IPTV service providers in India to transmit eight channels of National Broadcaster, Doordarshan. The list of channels include Lok Sabha Television, DD Rajya Sabha, DD-1, DD News, DD Sports, DD Urdu, Gyan Darshan and DD Bharti.

The directive supposedly has been issued in compliance with the section 8 of the Cable TV Network Regulation Act. The Cable TV act reportedly enunciates that cable TV operators are bound to broadcast minimum of two DD terrestrial channels, two Parliament channels and one regional channel.

While DTH and cable service providers have to broadcast only 5 channels on account of bandwidth limitations, the IPTV service providers are not subject to any such bandwidth limitation. Furthermore, it is anticipated that a decision to permit news in private FM radio stations may be taken by the government. It is being speculated that reading of news put out by Doordarshan, All India Radio (AIR) and accredited local and international newswire agencies will be allowed.