DD bungles as telecast goes off air for 3 minute

         The government was left red-faced on Monday (24-05-10) after PM Manmohan Singh's media interaction to mark the first anniversary of UPA-2 was marred by a three-minute disruption in live telecast.

         Doordarshan had exclusive rights to broadcast the event and all other television channels took its feed keeping in mind the significance of the event, only to be left with a blank screen a few minutes into the press conference.

         DD officials said a minor fire in the outside broadcast (OB) van caused the disruption. An embarrassed I&B ministry has asked Prasar Bharati for a report on the incident.

         I&B minister Ambika Soni told press , "I have asked I&B secretary Raghu Menon to look into the issue. It is unfortunate that as the only live broadcaster, such things (disruption of telecast) should happen."

         DD officials said a minor fire broke out in the OB van which was stationed outside Vigyan Bhavan. DD DG Aruna Sharma said, "There was a disruption for three minutes and one second in the live telecast. The telecast was disrupted because of a fire in the OB van. But remedial measures were taken to restore the broadcast."

         Sharma said the telecast switched to the studio for the duration while the crew in the OB van doused the fire.  "However, none of the telecast was lost. For the time that there was a problem, the press conference continued to be recorded," she added.

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