Jaipal Reddy

New Delhi, Aug. 7: Prasar Bharati is all set to launch its direct-to-home platform by month-end.

Doordarshan is hoping to get Manmohan Singh to officially inaugurate the service. The date of the launch will be fixed once the Prime Minister’s availability is known.

Information and broadcasting minister Jaipal Reddy had reservations about the national broadcaster using its scarce funds for the project, but has allowed Doordarshan to go ahead with its plans. Scrapping the project would have interfered with Prasar Bharati’s autonomy, a ministerial aide said.

“We in Doordarshan are enthusiastic about DTH. It will help us reach out to remote areas and to marginal communities,” K.S. Sarma, Prasar Bharati’s chief executive officer said.

Doordarshan will initially offer 30 channels on its bouquet, raising it later to 40. In addition to giving all the national network channels, private television companies including regional production houses will also be beamed by DD.

Star Utsav, Aaj Tak, Headlines Today, Jain TV, Care TV, Surya, the Malayalan channel, Sun and Raj TV in Tamil, Alpha Bangla, MH 1, as well as Raj TV in Telugu will be part of the DTH offering. For the first two years the carriage fee which private channels have to pay Doordarshan will be waived.

A set-top box and a small dish is needed to receive the service. Doordarshan has bought 10,000 set-top boxes and has already distributed 5,000 such free sets to schools, community centres and government institutions in remote areas. People in some places have also bought the set top boxes privately. A box costs around Rs 3,500-4,000, varying from state to state.

DD sources said most of the work for DTH transmission in remote areas of states like Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh is complete. The work has not been completed in parts of the Northeast because of floods.