The Hindu Business Line : Expanding TV coverage through KU band — `Head-ends to be provided to schools, community centres'

AS part of expanding television coverage using the KU band to reach out to inaccessible areas, the Government has said that cable head-ends would be provided to various institutions, community centres and schools while cable operators would be appointed only where it is absolutely necessary.

At a meeting of the Expenditure Finance Committee (EFC) comprising officials of the Planning Commission, Expenditure Department and Information & Broadcasting (I&B) Ministry, it was suggested that instead of providing subsidy by way of distributing cable head-ends and set top boxes free of cost to cable operators, it should be provided to schools, panchayats, community centres and other such institutions.

It was also suggested that within the proposed cost, no staff would be provided for operation and maintenance of the system.

While private companies such as Zee and STAR have sought licences for getting into direct-to-home (DTH) broadcasting, there is no compulsion for licence holders to show DD channels in the free-to-air mode. Also, these companies are expected to take some more time before they become operational, said the I&B officials.

However, the EFC felt that efforts should be made to make KU band technology more popular and self-sustaining. Prasar Bharati should consider transmitting private channels on their network. It also allowed the I&B Ministry to increase the transmission from 20 channels to 30 channels within the proposed cost.

The proposal of expanding television coverage using KU band was initiated about two years ago to help increase connectivity in the North-East and some other inaccessible regions of the country where terrestrial broadcasting was not possible.

The national broadcaster has already started implementing the project.

The Planning Commission had approved a budget of Rs 500 crore for this project.

In a related development, the Department of Space has been asked to commercialise its services such as telecommunication, radio broadcasting and meteorological forecasting provided to various users so that the Indian Space Programme could achieve self-reliance and self-sufficiency.

The Department said that thrust must be given for creating awareness on the various space applications particularly in the areas of tele-medicine, disaster management and education learning.

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