I&B Ministry
DD moving to digitisation through Freedish and DTT: Rathore
NEW DELHI: The percentage of rural viewers who are accessing Doordarshan through its terrestrial network is 7-8 per cent of 170 million TV households, Parliament was told today.
Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore addressing the Parliament said that 28.73 per cent of the total expenditure of Doordarshan was spent on terrestrial distribution in the year 2013-14.
Prasar Bharati has informed that it has decided upon progressive digitisation of Doordarshan’s transmission network by way of expansion of DD Freedish and setting up of a commercially viable Digital Terrestrial Transmitter (DTT) platform in harmony with the recommendations of the Expert Committee.
In order to gain experience in digital transmission technology, Doordarshan had set up four digital transmitters, one each at Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai in January 2003 on an experimental basis using DVB-T system.
Four digital HPTs (HDTV) have been installed at Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai which are ready for commissioning. Prasar Bharati has informed the Ministry that 40 digital HPTs (DVB-T2) under 11th Plan and 23 digital HPTs (DVB-T2) under 12th Plan have been approved as part of digitisation schemes. Out of 40 digital HPTs, 19 are presently under implementation.
The 19 digital transmitters 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.
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.
