DD to beam 4 channels into US by April

The Indian diaspora in the US can watch four more Doordarshan channels by March-end as public broadcaster Prasar Bharati is all set to make these channels available there. He called for early setting up of a content as well a broadcast regulator.

Prasar Bharti Chief Executive KS Sarma said, "Hopefully by the end of March 2006, we will broadcast four TV channels into the US." Prasar Bharti had earlier invited bids for distribution of four channels through the cable TV network and direct-to-home service.

"The free-to-air DTH service has now reached over five million homes and the service is so popular today that even though we have a capacity of putting up 33 TV channels, 60 private channels wanted to be on our platform at the earliest", he said, adding, "by the end of May, we will have capacity for another 21 channels on the DTH".

At the Broadcast Engineers Society meeting here Sarma said, all vehicles in Delhi could now access TV and the digital terrestrial telecast and this facility could be extended to the other three metros.

Information and Broadcasting Minister Priyaranjan Dasmunsi said individual privacy should not be encroached upon while using technology for information and investigative purposes.

The minister, who was inaugurating the 12th BES Expo 2006 here today, felt that within five years India, Japan, Korea and China would be a common family in the area of technology and this strength needed to be harnessed to its full extent.

Doordarshan would come out with an appropriate strategy to meet the information needs of the Indian diaspora.