NEW DELHI: With the viewership of Prasar Bharti’s Direct-To-Home (DTH) service—Doordarshan (DD) Free Dish growing manifolds every year, the government has been taking various proactive measures to increase the representation of south Indian language channels on the platform.
For better regional representation, slots were reserved for south Indian language channels in the e-auctions of DD Free Dish earlier this year. Eligibility norms have also been simplified to ensure greater participation from private broadcasters in the southern region.
The DTH service has seen consistent growth in its reach over the past few years and as per industry estimates of 2024; it reaches approximately 49 million households. It was 33 million in 2018, signifying the positive audience growth.
While responding to questions on measures taken by the Government to encourage south Indian language channels to secure slots on DD Free Dish and the results achieved, the Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting L Murugan, on Wednesday, informed Lok Sabha that DD's regional channels such as DD Tamil, DD Saptagiri, DD Chandana, DD Yadagiri, and DD Malayalam have also been onboarded and they are being technologically upgraded and better promoted to enhance their visibility.
“Furthermore, dedicated slots were offered for Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, and Malayalam channels in recent e-auctions. Three additional south Indian language private channels viz. TV9 Telugu, Aastha Kannada & Aastha Telugu, have been onboarded on DD Free Dish since April 1,” his reply read.
Apart from this, there are 27 educational channels on DD Free Dish, which are relaying programs in various south Indian languages. The DTH service currently offers 164 channels.
DD Free Dish is a service owned and operated by the public broadcaster. It was launched in December 2004. It is the only Free-to-Air (FTA) DTH service with no monthly subscription fee. The service has its footprint spanning over the entire country--except in Andaman & Nicobar Islands-- including remote, border, and otherwise inaccessible areas. Government flagship schemes and public awareness campaigns are disseminated through programs on various national and regional channels of Doordarshan on DD Free Dish.