DD India to reach 120 million households abroad

Kolkata, Aug 24: A revamped Doordarshan India will make its international appearance in a couple of months and reach 120 million households abroad.

"It (DD India) will make its global appearance within a few months ... Everything is running as per schedule and the channel will be launched hopefully before next year," Prasar Bharati Chief Executive Officer Jawhar Sircar told PTI.

Earlier this month, Prasar Bharati had entered into a MoU with Germany's Public International Broadcaster Deutsche Welle for distribution of DD India on a free-to-air basic package mode, DTH platform of Hotbird-13B satellite across Europe, Asia, North Africa and even up to Australia and the Middle East.

The channel would be offered in the basic package of the DTH service and not require subscription or payment for viewing. Asked whether the channel would be in the same league as the BBC and China's CCTV, Sircar said that the prime target would be to reach overseas citizens of India and Indian embassies and then slowly get into the India-centric social media platform.

"Our prime target is to reach the overseas citizens of India and embassies ... We don't have any plan to compete with CCTV and BBC," the CEO said.

DD currently has a budget of Rs 2-3 crore per year for production of programmes for the international channel, which has to go up, Sircar said.

The channel's programme would primarily focus on different cultures and languages of regions like France, the UK, Turkey and the Middle-East.

Programmes would be finalised in consultation with the ministries concerned, various stakeholders and the taste of the target audience, he said.

Prasar Bharati had launched DD International (DD3) in March 1995 aiming to cater to audiences in various parts of the world. The channel, which was renamed as DD World in 2000 was again changed to DD India two years later.

PTI