Al-Jazeera's DTH proposal being considered

Hyderabad, Apr 8 (UNI) A decision will be taken on telecasting Al-Jazeera in India through Direct-to-Home (DTH) service on April 28, Prasar Bharati Chief Executive Officer K S Sarma said today.

He told reporters here the Quatar government had applied for DTH service in the country and it was ready to pay Rs one crore for this. Officials concerned were discussing giving permission to the channel with the government. A final decision would be taken on April 28.

Stating that the German-based public broadcaster English channel, 'Deutchewalle' had also applied for DTH service, he said the number of TV channels on DTH would be increased from present 33 to 51 by May 30 and the number would go up to 100 by December 2006.

The number of radio channels would be increased to 20 from 12 by the end of 2006.

Eight million DTH boxes and two million Dish TVs were sold this year. Mr Sarma said 65 TV channels were ready to join DTH at a cost of Rs one crore per year and had applied to the corporation.

UNI AP ARB HT1450