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DD unveils total revamp to take on competition

B B Nagpal in New Delhi

Faced with a do-or-die situation, Doordarshan has formally taken the plunge into the concept of 24-hour news and entertainment channels in an attempt to stop the satellite TV channels having a picnic at its expense.

Apart from a news channel commencing on Independence Day, Doordarshan today announced that both its main channels -- DD1 and DD2 -- would become 24-hour channels.

But with the tight-fisted government asking it to generate its own resources, Doordarshan is once again knocking on the doors of Hollywood and Bollywood to help it out.

At a press conference addressed by some Prasar Bharati board members and attended by the glitterati of Bollywood currently involved with Doordarshan programming, Chief Executive Officer Rajiv R Shah also announced that the two channels would be telecast via satellite as well as terrestrially and in the digital and analogue modes.

Considering that Doordarshan has a reach of 54 million viewers while satellite channels reach only 18 million, it is incumbent upon cable operators to show Doordarshan channels, Shah said.

He pointed out that the Cable Operators (Regulation) Act, 1995, clearly provides in section 8 that cable operators must show two Doordarshan channels, "and DD1 should be the first choice being the national channel".

Those present at the press conference included Prasar Bharati board members Prof U R Rao and B G Verghese, actors Shekhar Suman and Anupam Kher, and film and television producers Ramanand Sagar, Jeetendra, Dheeraj Kumar, Markand and Gautam Adhikari, Sanjay Khan, Ravi Chopra, Manju Singh, Kavita Chowdhury, Sunil Mehta and Suhaib Ilyasi.

Bhaskar Ghose, who is secretary general of the Indian Broadcasting Foundation, and Sunit Tandon of the National Film Development Corporation were also present.

In preparation for the DD News Channel from August 15, Doordarshan has begun telecast of news bulletins on the hour, every hour, on the primary channel (DD1).

Under the new schedule, there are a total of 11 Hindi news bulletins, which includes one of regional news, and 10 English news bulletins. One Urdu bulletin is telecast on the Metro channel (DD2) everyday at 1425 IST.

At present, Doordarshan has 19 channels, including the international DD India, its only 24-hour channel.

DD1 and DD2 have a fix of education, information and entertainment, DD 4 to 13 and DD18 are regional-language channels, DD14 to 17 network the regional services of four Hindi-speaking states, and DD Sports telecasts for about 12 hours daily.

Though the Election Commission has rejected Prasar Bharati's suggestion to issue an ordinance to compel cable networks to show its main channels, refurbishing its programming may also help Doordarshan to attract viewers.

Shah said a cable operator cannot be allowed to interfere with terrestrial broadcasting since the 1995 Act only deals with cable and satellite broadcasting.

Replying to a question about the objectives of public-service broadcasting, Shah made it clear that Doordarshan could not surrender its viewership and revenue at a time when this was the only consideration in the face of competition. In fact, public-service broadcasting was possible only if he could hold on to this viewership, he said.

In any case, he added, public-service broadcasting need not be confined to DD1 and could be spread over Doordarshan's other channels.

He said revenue considerations would reign supreme during prime time, unlike non-prime time when quality could be taken into consideration.

The CEO made three different presentations to prove that the figures given to advertisers by other channels were based on just nine cities and therefore "skewed". He said Doordarshan covers an area of 72.9 per cent and a population of over 85 per cent of the country's total.

From Independence Day, three channels -- DD India, DD Sports and DD News and Current Affairs -- will be beamed on the international PAS 4 satellite on 4033 MHz. These will be digital channels in MCPC mode.

The DD News channel will also be telecast on analogue mode via PAS 4 on 4155 MHz. DD1 and DD2 will additionally be available as digital channels in SCPC mode on INSAT 2E (3830 MHz and 3910 MHz, respectively) from August 15.

DD India and DD Sports will discontinue analogue transmission from that date.

Shah said DD1 may be made available on PAS 4 after a few months.

After the proposed extension of DD2, the countdown programme will be slotted from 2100 to 2200 hours on Sundays and the English feature films will be telecast at 2305 hours daily and repeated at one other time.

A Hindi feature film is also planned to be telecast daily in the afternoon, with a repeat telecast late at night.

All these programmes will be telecast under the sponsored category.

The National (DD1) and Metro (DD2) channels are now reaching more countries all over the world since they began beaming via transponders on INSAT 2E. INSAT 2E, which is India's latest communication satellite, is in a geo-stationary orbit at 83 degrees east in vertical polarisation.

DD1 and DD2 are on transponders C10 (3849 MHz) and C12 (3929 MHz), respectively, and are being beamed on the wide beam, which enable them to reach Asia and Australia, and parts of Africa and Europe.

Doordarshan has already shifted three regional services of Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal to transponders on this satellite. The regional channels are on the zonal beam: Tamil Nadu on transponder C9 (3809 MHz), Andhra Pradesh on C13 (3969 MHz), and West Bengal on C16 (4089 MHz). This beam also covers China, Afghanistan, Pakistan and the Far Eastern countries, including Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Korea and parts of Japan.

UNI

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