HYDERABAD: Decks have been cleared for Prasar Bharati to make Doordarshan channel available in the United States of America.

CEO of Prasar Bharati K.S. Sarma told a press conference here on Thursday that May 24 had been tentatively selected for launching the channel at a function in New York. He said this was a great occasion for Indians wanting to look at events in India through Doordarshan.

Responding to a question on DTH (direct-to-home), he said that by June 15, the DTH platform would be expanded to accommodate 50 channels from the present 33 that included 19 of DDK's own channels. This apart, the number of radio channels too would go up from 12 to 20, starting May 15, he said. With the expansion, Prasar Bharati was now in a position to demand the Rs. 1 crore that it took to have space on a platform for a year's time, he said.

Mr. Sarma went on to explain that though they had voiced the demand, channels had not paid up citing absence of reach as the reason. With a Television Audience Measurement (TAM) survey estimating the number of set-top boxes sold across India at about 8 million, private channels were willing to pay for space on the DTH platform, he said.

Interestingly, about 80 per cent of the set-top boxes were bought by people in the socio-economic categories A, B & C in rural areas and the rest bought by those in categories D & E in urban areas, he said.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail