Must for cable-operators to show 21DD channels in major cities

Cable TV operators in more than 40 major cities will now have to mandatorily show 21 Doordarshan and three other channels to their consumers.
Sources told PTI that the Information and Broadcasting ministry has issued a notification as per which cable operators must show the 24 channels to all their subscribers in cities where digitisation has been implemented.
After switching over from analogue to digital signals, the channel carrying capacity of cable networks has increased. Keeping this in mind, the ministry had issued a notification as per which cable operators have been asked to show 21 DD channels, Lok Sabha TV, Rajya Sabha TV and Gyan Darshan channel, a source said.

Earlier, cable operators across the country were supposed to show eight mandatory channels, the source said.
The government has already implemented digitisation in four metros and 38 other major cities in the first two phases of the drive where the new rule will be applicable. The I&B ministry intends to make the entire cable sector in the country digital by the end of 2014.
In its latest notification, the ministry has said that the mandatory 24 channels will have to be placed along side other private channels of the same genre and directed cable operators to show each mandatory channel in full screen.

Among the channels which cable operators must show are DD National, DD News, DD Bharati, DD Urdu, DD Sports, DD India, DD Kashir, DD Punjabi, DD Girnar, DD Sahyadri, DD Saptagiri, DD Malayalam, DD Podhigai, DD Chandana, DD Bangla, DD North East, DD Bihar, DD Uttar Pradesh, DD Rajasthan, DD Madhya Pradesh, DD Oriya, Gyan Darshan, Lok Sabha TV and Rajya Sabha TV.
The I&B ministry has also notified a list of nine TV channels which must be showed in areas where digitisation has not been implemented yet.