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Purging the network of corrupt officials apart, state-owned broadcaster Doordarshan launched five of its channels in digital mode last week. DD I, DD II, DD International, DD Sports and DD News are to now broadcast digitally in addition to analogue transmissions. DD News was launched on 15 August despite opposition from political parties and a state of unprepared-ness amongst DD staffers who were working on the channel. While DD I and DD II are beaming off Insat 2E, the other three channels are using a PAS-4 transponder.

DD officials say they took the digital route to ensure better picture transmissions to cable headends. DD channels have been plagued with image ghosting on cable TV networks because terrestrial and satellite signals have been interfering with each other in viewers' homes. This will not prove a problem with digital transmissions, senior DD officials hope.

Simultaneously, has started airing two of its services DD I and DD II 24 hours a day as against the 16-18 hours earlier. Prasar Bharati chief R.R. Shah has warned cable operators of strict government action if they fail to carry a minimum of two DD channels on their networks. He also spoke aggressively at a Delhi press conference last week saying that DD was far ahead of private channels in reach terms and advertisers should not forget that.

The Prasar Bharati, meanwhile, is studying a proposal from Telediffusion (TDF) France to hive off its transmission activities into a separate company. TDF will take a 20-26% equity stake in the joint venture but will manage it jointly with DD engineers. The joint venture will come about only if DD transmission and production activities are bifurcated into separate companies.