Doordarshan is all set to witness a complete revamp in its quality and contents with the government approving a proposal of Rs 140 crore for production and acquisition of fresh software for programmes to be telecast through 35 channels of the national broadcaster.

“The objective of the scheme is to create fresh and good quality content with the purpose of increasing the viewership and popularity of Doordarshan programmes,” sources in the Information and Broadcasting Ministry told Deccan Herald.

The scheme, which was formulated at the initiative of the Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni, would enable DD to enhance its fresh contents from 6 hours to 14 hours. “An estimated revenue of Rs 40 crore is expected to be generated as the outcome of the implementation of the plan,” sources added.

The government has allocated Rs 80 crore to revamp DD-Urdu while Rs 15 crore for regional language satellite services, Rs 14 crore for DD India, another Rs 14 crore for DD Bharati, Rs 10 crore for DD News and Rs 9 crore for DD-Archives.

Under the scheme, DD will develop and improve its content delivery, and produce 15,067 episodes for various channels in the next three years. Out of this, 12,400 episodes will be made in-house and 2,667 episodes commissioned through outside producers.

Cost of the in-house production for each episode has been fixed at Rs 50,000 per episode while it is Rs 3 lakh for production of each episode through commissioning.

Apart from this, DD will also be making a switch from analog to digital transmitters, which would offer multi-channel transmission from single transmitter, spectrum efficiency and enhanced picture quality. “In line with the trend taking place all round the world, digitalisation will continue to be the top priority so that by the end of the XII Plan, a complete analog switch-off will have been made,” sources said. This essentially entails continuation of the XI plan schemes of the I&B ministry to fully digitalise the remaining 39 out of 66 studios and establishing 40 digital high power transmitters at existing locations.

A critical component of digitalisation would be setting up facilities for providing HDTV telecasts for viewers, which has a resolution five times higher than traditional television systems. This would entail conversion of a studio for HDTV production establishing a HDTV transmitter in each of the 4 metros. In addition, provision will be made for 590 low power digital transmitters during the XII plan. Additional infrastructure build up will include up gradation of 10 existing satellite earth stations and setting up of 5 new ones.

Doordarshan is presently operating 35 satellite channels and has a vast network of 66 studios and 1,415 transmitters providing television coverage to about 92 per cent population of the country.DD’s 35 channels include seven all India channels, one international channel, eleven regional channels, fifteen state networks and one HDTV channel.

Four DD channels—DD-News, DD-Sports, DD-Bharati and DD-India—are presently available in 86 countries. These are transmitted through IS10 satellite. DD-India channel is additionally available in North American countries like USA, Canada and Mexico.

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