Indian I&B ministry evaluates content sharing between AIR and DD News

The move comes as part of an overall revamp of Prasar Bharati, which runs AIR and Doordarshan, to revive the finances and audience of the broadcaster.

Prasar Bharati is also converting its socio-cultural channel DD India into a global English-language news channel and its current bilingual channel DD News into a full-fledged Hindi news channel. The information and broadcasting (I&B) ministry is evaluating a news content sharing partnership between state broadcasters Doordarshan and All India Radio in a bid to realign infrastructure and staff at both entities.

Public broadcaster Prasar Bharati runs both Doordarshan and All India Radio (AIR). While Doordarshan has a dedicated bilingual news channel, DD News, AIR airs news bulletins through 420 radio stations across the country.

Private FM radio channels are not authorized to air news content and can only carry AIR news bulletins in exactly the same format.

Both entities have independent news divisions. The ministry is evaluating a plan to exploit the resources in a better way. Moreover, the manpower and infrastructure of both the organisations need to be realigned to widen the reach of public broadcasters and hence, avoid duplication.