Taking cues from television channel like the BBC World, the government hopes to revamp DD India, Doordarshan’s International TV Channel, in an attempt to project brand India abroad.
This comes against the backdrop of the channel’s failure to deliver to its targeted audiences in a way it was conceived to. With vehement support of the government, Prasar Bharati and the Information & Broadcasting Ministry are now banking on the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) to step in and facilitate the project.
According to a Prasar Bharti official, the purpose is to let the world have the “last and most credible word” about India, saying
” We want to have something of the standard of the BBC…something to which an international viewer can tune in and know everything that is to be known about India.”
“We are going to Europe or say Western countries…(and are figuring out as to) what are the kind of programmes that DD India should have. So it’s important that we create the base and then launch the channel, rather than be in a hurry to launch the channel. We must have enough content in it,” Minister of State for Information & Broadcasting Rajyavardhan Rathore told The Indian Express.
Meanwhile, the I&B Ministry, has asserted about the need to filter the kind of content that airs on television.
Prasar Bharati sources also commenetd that the test transmission of DD India has been recently rolled out on Deutsche Welle Hotbird 13-B satellite with the relay of the President’s message & Republic Day celebrations.
Responding to the massive interest Indian diaspora has in Indian films, Prasar Bharti also said that public service broadcaster also plans to tie-up with rights owners of new films and film-based programming for DD India.