In a historic first for India, Doordarshan will be now available across Europe, Africa and Australia as a DTH free to air channel.
After 55 years of its existence, DD can be now viewed in digital format by more than 120 million+ viewers across the world!
Prasar Bharti, which is India’s Public Service Broadcaster and runs Doordarshan signed a pact with Germany’s International broadcaster: Deutsche Welle which will allow DD to be shown via DTH mode.
Announcing the MoU, Prasar Bharti’s CEO Jawhar Sircar said, “For the first time in history of Doordarshan’s 55 years, one of its channels, (DD India), would soon be available in a Free-to-Air basic package mode, on a DTH Ku-band platform of Hotbird-13B satellite.”
After this deal, the viewers from the following regions can view Doordarshan:
- Europe
- Central Asia
- Middle East countries
- North Africa
- Some parts of Australia
Collectively, these regions account for more than 120 million viewers.
Hotbird-13B is popular DTH platform in European countries, as it provides more than 1543 channels including BBC, CNN, CCTV, RT, France24, VOA TV, Euromans, Sky News, Bloomberg TV, Al Jazeera. Out of these, 1117 channels are free to air.
Inclusion of DD among these free to air channels will immensely benefit NRIs residing in these countries, especially Middle East. Indians working there can now connect with India specific news and opinions from Doordarshan, without paying any additional charges as free to air channels are available with the basic DTH package.
During the announcement, it was also suggested that a high level team of creative directors and producers would be formed to finalize the content for Doordarshan, considering that the channel will be now beamed all over the world. It become necessary to come up with interesting content, which actually represents India and it’s culture and tradition in the right manner.
The MoU signed between Prasar Bharti and Deutsche Welle will also enable one national channel from Germany to be broadcasted under Prasar Bharti inside India. It is being speculated that under this reciprocal distribution of free to air channel, DW-TV from Germany would be available under DD Free Dish, which is Doordarshan’s DTH platform.
Do you think that this MoU will help to project a positive image of India, and assist our creative personals to showcase their skills to a global audience? Share your views by commenting right here!
Despite a secured position in the media market with huge terrestrial resources and a pool of creative talents enjoying over 92 per cent of geographical coverage area and reaching out to over 168m viewers Doordarshan had everything going for it but was not ‘doordarshya’ (farsighted) enough to perceive it.
All it needed was a formula made up of dynamic leadership, perception of digital convergence, agility, farsightedness and sagacity. Most importantly it denied itself the opportunities of digitalisation which has conferred a range of benefits to public service broadcasters in Europe.
The Indian Ministry of Information and Broadcasting eventually carries the can because it ignored the plight of Prasar Bharati(PB) and failed to provide it with ideological justification for digital expansion. PB is seen as having presided over the emergence of a paradox for Doordarshan (DD).
The Public Service Provider is likened to a lion being confined to a cage in a zoo which has lost its instincts for survival in the wild and is at the mercy of its zoo keepers. PB’s challenges now are to untame the animal to enable it to regain its glory and ferocity. It should be restored its freedom before setting it loose to chase the purpose of existence in competition with others.
That’s it. Zoo keepers should wake up to the reality of a new habitat for the lion which has now changed with the advent of digitalisation, dominated by a neo-lliberalist economic policy, which is here to influence the delivery of public interest throughout the world. The search for a new paradigm shift is on to address reconfigured media landscape. Let the lion roam freely. Long live the lion.