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!