India’s public broadcaster Prasar Bharti has signed an MoU with Germany’s public service broadcaster Deutsche Welle (DW) on August 5, 2014 that will allow Doordarshan programmes to be in a “Free-to-Air” mode abroad and? .
The agreement will help the 55-year old channel will now be seen in 120 million homes abroad and will be available in Europe, Africa and even Australia.
This step is expected to give a new life to the channel and help to gather a global viewership at minimal cost. The agreement will allow airing of ‘India Channel’ on DTH Platform of Hotbird-13B Satellite, which has a reach across continents and airs around 1,543 TV channels of which 1,117 are Free-to-Air.
The satellite broadcasts 24 English channels that include popular ones like BBC, CNN, BloombergTV, Al Jazeera, etc.
“The MoU enables Doordarshan to considerably enhance its global reach at a minimal cost. It is a win-win situation for both broadcasters,” an official said. (Source)
With Doordarshan going global, we see a silver lining and a new turn in the vintage channel’s life. Cheers to this achievement!
