I&B Ministry
FTII students expected to meet MIB MoS Rajyavardhan Rathore
NEW DELHI: A meeting of the student leaders of Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) with Minister of State for Information & Broadcasting (I&B) Rajyavardhan Rathore will be convened in the near future, according to information given to students today.
The meeting is likely to be in Delhi, though no date has been fixed. Further discussions would depend on the outcome of this meeting, I&B sources told Indiantelevision.com.
I&B secretary Sunil Arora, in a brief second round of discussions with the students in Mumbai took their opinion on proposals to make FTII an institution of excellence.
The Ministry was represented by Joint Secretary (Films) Sanjay Murthy, Films Division director general Mukesh Sharma, FTII director Prashant Pathrabe and FTII eegistrar U C Bodke. The Students’ Association was represented by seven members and Aruna Raje Patil of GRAFTII.
In the earlier round of negotiations with the FTII student leaders on 7 October, the Mukesh Sharma Committee had been set up to look into the issues of operational flexibility and procurement of equipment for FTII.
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.
