( 16 March 2013 9:20 pm) 

NEW DELHI: The Prasar Bharati Board has been asked to take an expeditious decision on expanding the number of channels on Doordarshan's direct-to-home (DTH) platform DD Direct Plus to 97, following the decision of the Department of Space to give it an additional transponder of INSAT 4B.

The Space Department had initially declined to give an additional transponder, forcing Prasar Bharati to lower its expansion plan for the country's only free-go-air DTH platform to 75 from the current 59.

Prior to the latest decision of the Department of Space, Prasar Bharati had already received and processed the tenders for upgradation to 75 slots.

Prasar Bharati's ultimate plan is to increase the number of channels on the platform to 150.

Information and Broadcasting Ministry stated this when answering a query from indiantelevision.com relating to an observation by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology relating to delay in expansion of DD Direct Plus.

The sources said that Prasar Bharati had earned revenue of Rs 920.5 million from the auction of 37 slots on the platform. The remaining 22 channels are those of Doordarshan itself.