Doordarshan to reach Europe, Asia & North Africa

Prasar Bharati (PB), India’s Public Service Broadcaster has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Deutsche Welle (DW), Germany’s Public Service Broadcaster.

The agreement between the two entities would facilitate for the first time the availability of Doordarshan programmes on a ‘Free to Air’ basic package mode, on a DTH Platform. This would entail coverage of DD through whole of Europe, Asia, North Africa and even upto Australia would be covered as zones. This would also provide DD a viable DTH distribution platform. The initiative assumes importance in view of providing a platform to project India’s view point to a global audience in a cost effective manner.

Speaking on the occasion, CEO Prasar Bharati Jawhar Sircar said the MOU provided an important platform to position DD content globally. The content for the platform would be created based on the consultation with various stakeholders and the taste of the target audience. Congratulating Prasar Bharati on the occasion, Secretary Culture Shri Ravindra Singh said, MOU had given an opportunity to project India’s soft power to the world.

The MoU entails distribution of ‘India Channel’ on DTH Platform of Hotbird-13B Satellite and the reciprocal distribution of DW-TV on DD Freedish.

Hotbird-13B is an extremely popular DTH platform in Europe. It has a reach of 120 million homes in the whole of Europe, Northern Africa and the whole of Middle East, having a total number of 1543 TV channels of which 1117 TV channels are Free-to-Air. 124 English channels are available on this satellite, prominent amongst which are BBC, CNN, CCTV, RT, France24, VOA TV, Euromans, Sky News, Bloomberg TV and Al Jazeera.

Placing DD on Hotbird DTH Platform will also give it full access to the Middle Eastern GCC Countries, where Indians work and reside in large numbers. DD will be offered in the basic package of the DTH service which does not require any individual to either subscribe to it or to pay for viewing the channel.