Prasar Bharti to build more digital infrastructure: Shashi Shekhar

The analogue terrestrial signals in 19 cities will be phased out by Prasar Bharti by the end of this month. Prasar Bharti CEO, Shashi Shekhar Vempati said that the public broadcaster has identified 44 additional cities where it will look at building digital infrastructure by installing digital transmitters.

He was speaking on the sidelines of the CII Big Picture Summit.

In India, so far we had been lagging in digital terrestrial broadcasting space. Prasar Bharati has made a beginning. Today, we have 19 cities where have rolled out digital terrestrial TV signals, Shashi Shekhar also said.

He said in the 19 cities where digital transmitters had been installed, analogue terrestrial signals would be switched off by this month-end.

He further added that they had identified 44 cities for the next phase. The focus would be on installing digital transmitters in these cities over the next few years.

Further, he said that there is an urgent need for a credible global voice that tells India's story to the rest of the world. There is a need to represent India's soft power, he also added. While stating that they are already working in that direction, he added that Doordarshan is a bilingual channel which would move in a direction where they will be a Hindi and English channel with a global focus.

Prasar Bharti has already started its plans to make DD India as its English channel with a global focus catering to both Indian and international viewers. DD News which is currently bilingual is expected to be converted into a Hindi news channel.

Shashi Shekhar further added that human capital, creativity and freedom of expression have established India as the global 'Vishwa Guru.' The future of media and entertainment lay in the convergence of technology and content. He said that private and public sectors need to create the right technology ecosystem.

OneIndia News