The Hindu : Karnataka News : Doordarshan to open foreign channel

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Aug 18, 2004

Karnataka

Karnataka

Doordarshan to open foreign channel

By Our Special Correspondent

BANGALORE, AUG. 17. Doordarshan (DD) is poised to open its first foreign channel. To be targeted at Indians in Britain and Europe, it is expected to be a reality in a few months.

At present, a few private television networks in the country are telecasting programmes for viewers in Britain. DD will telecast news and other programmes in English, Hindi, Punjabi, Tamil and Bengali from London.

The Secretary, Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Naveen Chawla, recently visited London to study the prospects for such a DD channel. Mr. Chawla, who was in Bangalore, told The Hindu that his Ministry had cleared the channel. Only the Finance Ministry had raised a question under a law relating to foreign exchange. Under that law, clearance will be given provided the organisation that approached the Ministry established an office in the foreign country concerned. The issue raised by the Finance Ministry created some confusion.

British satellite

It had now been decided that DD will not open an office or station in London. Instead, the programmes will be telecast making use of a British satellite, ``B Sky B.''

Mr. Chawla said the DD Director-General had been asked to set up a special programming unit to decide upon the programmes to be telecast. The programmes would cater to three generations of the Indian diaspora in Britain — the elderly, the middle aged and the youth. Indians living abroad had for long been feeling the absence of an Indian television channel and DD would make up for the desideratum.

It would be a 24-hour channel with a mix of news, entertainment and information oriented programmes. The Secretary said that it would be a free channel and also help All India Radio to broadcast programmes to Britain.

Mr. Chawla said the programmes for the London channel would be prepared in New Delhi and telecast to London. Doordarshan was not going to have an establishment there.

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