DD’s overseas channel goes DTH on Hotbird-13B satellite
By TN Ashok Economics Editor
New Delhi, Aug 05 : Prasar Bharati, India’s state owned public broadcaster, today signed a MOU with its German counterpart Deutsche Welle (DW) making available Doordarshan programmes on a ‘Free to Air’ basic package on a DTH Platform worldwide to project Indias view points on global issues besides reaching out to millions of Indians in West Asia, Europe and Africa with domestic entertainment programmes.
The MOU facilitates DD’s .reach through Europe, Asia, North Africa and even up to Australia . DD also gets a viable DTH distribution platform to project India’s view point to a global audience in a cost effective manner. Prasar Bharati CEO Jawhar Sircar said the MOU provided an important platform to position DD content globally.
The contents of programmes to be aired in what languages would all be decided and created after extensive consultations with various stakeholders and tailored to suit the taste of the target audience, he told newsmen.
Congratulating Prasar Bharati on the occasion, Secretary Culture Ravindra Singh said, MOU had given an opportunity to project India’s soft power to the world. The MoU entails distribution of a slotted ‘India Channel’ on DTH Platform of Hotbird-13B Satellite and the reciprocal distribution of DW-TV on DD Freedish.
Hotbird-13B is a very popular DTH platform in Europe that reaches out to 120 million homes in the whole of Europe, Northern Africa and the whole of Middle East, with a total of 1543 TV channels, 1117 of which are Free-to-Air. 124 English channels are available on this satellite, prominent among them being BBC, CNN, CCTV, RT, France24, VOA TV, Euromans, Sky News, Bloomberg TV, Al Jazeera, etc.
Placing DD on Hotbird DTH Platform will also give it full access to the Middle Eastern GCC Countries, where Indians work and reside in large numbers. DD will be offered in the basic package of the DTH service which does not require any individual to either subscribe to it or to pay for viewing the channel.
Ms Dorothy Ullriche, joint director general of DW, and Ms Vijay Laxmi Chaabra, Director General Parasar Bharati, exchanged the MOU documents on the occasion. Mr Andreas Lang, Head of Media division in German embassy was also present on the occasion besides Mr Syed Akbaruddin , Joint Secretary , Ministry of External Affairs.
Mr Akbaruddin, who is also the spokesman of the MEA, said the MOU fulfils a long felt need of India to project its views on the global landscape in an effective manner.
