The Hindu Business Line : Doordarshan moves to pad up DTH bouquet

DOORDARSHAN has plans to increase from 30 the number of channels to be offered in its free-to-air bouquet of Direct-to-Home (DTH) satellite television service.

Announcing this to presspersons here, Mr Peer Muhammed, Director, and Mr Abraham George, Superintending Engineer, Doordarshan Kendra, Thiruvananthapuram, said that the regular service, named DD Direct + (Direct Plus), would be commissioned very shortly.

Trial transmission had been on air from as early as April this year and the fully digital reception quality conforms to international standards.

The Doordarshan team also presented a demo of the service before assembled presspersons at the Press Club here. Explaining the features, it said that the key benefits to users included a one-time investment on the receive system, its easy local availability, absence of any hidden/recurring cost, a bouquet that will be suitable for viewing by the whole family, excellent signal quality and freedom from intervention by a third player. Of the 30 channels on offer to start with, 17 would be Doordarshan's own channels and the rest private.

Users can access them at their own premises by deploying a small dish of 60 cm to 90-cm size catering to the desired individual signal strength and a set-top box (STB).

Barring the initial investment on equipment estimated at Rs 3,000 for the complete system including the dish and the STB, there will be no monthly subscription to be paid by users. The 30 channels will be beamed through three Ku-band transponders, each with a capacity of hosting 10 channels, leased on the New Skies Satellite (NSS-6) located at 95 degrees East. The footprint covers the whole of India except the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

The 17 Doordarshan channels on offer are DD National, DD India, DD Bharati, DD Sports, DD News, DD Gyan Darshan and 11 regional language channels. Twenty radio channels in regional languages are also available.

Further details are available at www.ddindia.com or www.ddinews.com.

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