Public broadcaster Prasar Bharati is operationalising four round-the-clock Doordarshan channels for Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, ahead of Lok Sabha elections with the four states together accounting for over 160 seats.
Official sources said while earlier four hours of content was being beamed to these states, the public broadcaster is completely transforming these channels which will now function round the clock.
The sources said while DD-Madhya Pradesh and DD-Bihar (which was earlier known as DD-Patna) have been 'soft launched' and they have started telecasting programmes, DD-Uttar Pradesh and DD-Rajasthan may run round-the-clock 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 the channels may be formally launched in the coming days.
Explaining the rationale behind the setting up of the four channels, the official said while Doordarshan had set up regional channels in several non-Hindi languages, it did not have specific 24 hour 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 round the clock channels for them," the official added.
