I&B Ministry
MIB to examine FTII demand for greater financial powers
NEW DELHI: The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) has agreed to examine a demand for an enhanced delegation of financial powers and flexibility in purchase of hardware etc to the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) in order to enable the students to do their creative work.
Films Division director general Mukesh Sharma has been asked to study the demand and give his report within a fortnight.
Following the end of the strike by FTII students after an assurance of meeting the MIB officials, a meeting was held in Mumbai today between representatives of FTII Students Association and the Ministry team headed by MIB secretary Sunil Arora.
The students, under the coordination of Aruna Raje, who represented GRAFTII – a body of alumni of the institute – will submit a blue print within a fortnight for turning FTII into an institute of national excellence at par with reputed institutions across the world.
The Ministry has already announced its intentions in this regard, but the students were told that their views would form a major input for taking this matter forward.
A second round of talks will be held with the Ministry delegation on 10 October in Mumbai. A request would also be made to MIB Minister of State Rajyavardhan Rathore to meet the students in Delhi in the near future.
Apart from the Secretary, the Ministry was represented by Joint Secretary (Films) K Sanjay Murthy; Films Division director general Mukesh Sharma; FTII director Prashant Pathrabe and FTII registrar U C Bodke.
The FTII Students’ Association was represented by Harishankar Nachimuthu, Ajayan Adat, Vikas Urs, Reema Kaur, Malayaj Awasthi, Ranjeet Nair and Shini J K.
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.
