In a bid to increase its outreach into the Hindi heartland, public broadcaster Prasar Bharati is set to operationalise four Doordarshan channels for Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.
Official sources said while DD-Madhya Pradesh and DD-Bihar have been 'soft launched' and they have started telecasting programmes, DD-Uttar Pradesh and DD-Rajasthan may do so in a month's time.
"This is an attempt by the public broadcaster to provide localised and region-specific content to the four Hindi heartland states. Two of the channels have been soft launched and two more will start functioning in a month's time," an official said.
The official said that the channels may be formally launched in the coming days.
Explaining the rationale behind the setting up of the four channels, the official said that while Doordarshan had set up regional channels in several non-Hindi languages, it did not have specific channels for these Hindi-speaking states as it was felt that DD National was doing the role.
"However, it is recognised that regional content is important and these states are spread over large areas so the public broadcaster has decided to work on separate channels for them," the official added.
