Doordarshan and All India Radio will provide exhaustive coverage of the Commonwealth Games to be held here next year, with DD Sports Channel becoming a Commonwealth Games Channel during the games period, the government said today.
The opening and closing ceremonies will be shown live on DD National, DD Sports, and DD India channels, while AIR will air live commentary.
Doordarshan and AIR have exclusive telecast rights for TV and radio in Indian territory. Both of them would customise the feedback from Indian perspective, including the performance of Indian athletes, Minister of State in the I&B Ministry C M Jatua said.
During the games, DD National will also telecast daily highlights for one hour while AIR will air live programmes for seven hours and 30 minutes daily, he said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha.
Prasar Bharati through its constituents — Doordarshan and Akashwani — is in the process of finalising the telecast plan.
AIR has planned to provide adequate coverage to 'Queens Baton Relay' as a pre-game programme and also for the curtain raiser as well as warm-up programmes.
Jatua said regional capsules will be broadcast by non-Hindi capital radio stations. Hourly updates will be given on FM Rainbow channels. Besides, capsules in English, Hindi and Urdu will be broadcast in external services division.
Prasar Bharati has also decided to set up an international broadcast centre at ITPO and expression of interest has also been issued to short list parties to set up the facility, he said.
