Doordarshan to have 150 DTH channels by year-end

Monday 12 Sep 2011
Doordarshan, India’s public broadcaster, is poised for a major expansion – the Prasar Bharati Board has cleared it to have 150 channels on its direct-to-home (DTH) platform by year-end, Times of India reports.

After the successful e-auction of the slots on its free-to-air DTH platform DD Direct Plus, Doordashan’s addition of another 100 channels in 2012 has been approved.

It currently has 59 DTH channels.

The decision was made at a board meeting last week.

In the e-auctions held between 28 July and 30 August, 45 private media companies had participated, bringing in revenues of 630 million rupees (US$13.39 million), its sources said.

The e-auction model was adopted after a court order which asked the public broadcaster to adopt a transparent system for slot allocation.

In the latest auction, six vacant slots on the DTH platform were sold for between 32.1 million rupees (US$633,100) to 35 million rupees (US743,890) per year.

The stage is also set for a major expansion of the All India Radio (AIR) FM network.

The board has approved immediate expansion of AIR’s FM stations to all 313 cities planned for coverage under the FM expansion scheme of the Information & Broadcasting ministry, said the release.