I&B Ministry
DD has no plans for new terrestrial transmitters in view of Freedish: MoS Rathore
NEW DELHI: A total of 19 digital transmitters have been installed in 17 states including Delhi ‘to keep pace with the advancement in broadcasting industry in the world’, Parliament has been informed.
Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore said a total of 40 digital high power transmitters under the 11th plan and 23 under the 12th plan have been approved as part of the digitisation schemes.
The 19 which are already under implementation include two each in Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra. The other states apart from Delhi are Assam, Bihar, Chhatisgarh, Gujarat, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Kerala, Karnataka, Odisha, Punjab, Tanil Nadu, Telengana, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal.
Meanwhile, the Minister said no new transmitters for terrestrial were envisaged for Doordarshan “in view of multi channel TV coverage having been provided in the entire country including rural areas through the free-to-air Freedish, except a few in border areas.”
As part of the ongoing schemes of the 11th plan, four transmitter projects are under implementation in J&K including a high power transmitter for DD1 and DD News in Rajouri. The others are HPTs in Green Ridge, Himbotingla and Natha Top (Patnitop).
I&B Ministry
Prasar Bharati sets EPG standards for DD Free Dish platform
New specs define 7-day guide, LCN mapping, and device compatibility.
MUMBAI: Your TV guide just got a backstage pass structured, scheduled, and far more in sync. Prasar Bharati has released detailed technical specifications for Electronic Programme Guide (EPG) services on DD Free Dish, laying down a standardised framework for how channels and programme information are organised and delivered. At the core of the update is a defined EPG data structure, covering genre-based categorisation, scheduling formats, and Logical Channel Numbering (LCN). The aim is simple: make navigation less guesswork and more guided experience across the platform’s over 40 million households.
The specifications also introduce a seven-day programme guide window for each channel, alongside clear rules for channel grouping and LCN mapping effectively deciding not just what you watch, but how easily you find it.
On the technical front, the document outlines requirements for Program Specific Information (PSI) and Service Information (SI), including descriptor usage across tables such as PAT, BAT and NIT. It further details service lists and network linkage parameters, giving OEMs and developers a clearer blueprint for integration.
Importantly, the framework is designed to work seamlessly with television sets equipped with in-built satellite tuners, enabling users to access DD Free Dish directly without additional hardware, an incremental but meaningful step towards simplifying access.
The platform will continue to operate on GSAT-15 transponders, using MPEG-4 compression and DVB-S2 transmission standards, ensuring continuity even as the interface evolves.
While largely technical, the move signals a broader push towards standardisation and user-friendly discovery in India’s free-to-air ecosystem because sometimes, the real upgrade isn’t what’s on screen, but how easily you get there.
