| According to a source in Prasar Bharati, which looks
after DD and sibling All India Radio, "The original cabinet note
on DTH had mentioned that a certain charge would be levied on private
channels as carriage fee for those that would agree to come on board.
Even for a waiver of this condition, a government okay is needed and
it is being awaited." Interestingly, the whole game plan involving
DD's DTH forays seems to be flawed, including the communication strategy,
and this is being increasingly realized in Prasar Bharati, whose secretariat
is finding itself helpless as various regional centres of DD have
been announcing DTH plans without co-ordination.
"We understand that there is a flaw in the strategy as various
regional kendras (centres) are announcing that they are launching
DTH services. How can regional centres launch a DTH service? What
was originally planned that each regional centre would do its bit
to create the hype for the DTH service. But now, it seems, every
centre is communicating the wrong things to the media," the
Prasar Bharati source said.
What is the information and broadcasting ministry doing on DD's
much-hyped-but-still-to-be-seen DTH service? Ministerial sources
said that the file is being studied as the government would like
to wait and see if the broadcast and cable regulator recommends,
as part of an overall report, that all TV channels must be made
available to all platforms on a non-discriminatory basis, including
DTH.
Since July, DD has been heavily advertising on its network that
its DTH service was to be launched soon. As of today, no final date
has been fixed for the formal launch. The last date that Prasar
Bharati was looking at was 15 September, which has come and gone.
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