NEW DELHI: India's Prasar Bharati Corporation has set up a European arm, christened Prasar Bharati Europe Ltd, to facilitate carriage of Doordarshan News and DD India, the international channel, on BSkyB platform in the UK.

Set up with an initial capital of 10,000 pounds, Prasar Bharati Europe would have the two director-generals of Doordarshan and All India Radio and the Corporation's London-based legal counsel, Peter Harvey, as its board members.

Prasar Bharati and the Rupert Murdoch-controlled pay platform, BSkyB, have come to an agreement that two channels of DD would be carried in the UK. However,
the financial agreements between the two were not revealed. The Prasar Bharati board has okayed the proposal.

In an another decision today, the Board also decided to make the proposed DTH platform of Doordarshan more attractive by increasing the total number of channels to 40 from 30, including participation from private satellite channels.

The DTH service, slated to be started sometime in June, is expected to carry some of the free to air satellite channels too to make the service more attractive to consumers. The channels with which Prasar Bharati has held talks include free to air channels like Sahara Manoranjan and SABe TV, sources in DD told indiantelevision.com after the board meeting.

However, Murdoch-controlled Star channels, as well as the Sony bouquet channels, are yet to revert to Prasar Bharati on an offer to join the DD DTH platform. In the case of
Star in particular, it seems to be a difficult proposition since it is proposing to start a DTH service along with the Tatas later this year.

Though Zee Telefilms has not confirmed anything yet, earlier a senior executive of the company had indicated to indiantelevision.com that the company is not averse to give some of its channels like Smile TV for DD's DTH platform.

Meanwhile, as the new information and broadcasting minister Jaipal Reddy met up with the Prasar Bharati board members today over a sumptuous South Indian
lunch, the board also okayed the taking up of a Rs 500 million Planning Commission-approved project to make programmes on the Indian classics.