I&B Ministry
Prasar Bharati CEO Jawhar Sircar officially seeks early retirement
MUMBAI: Prasar Bharati CEO Jawhar Sircar has been known to not pull any punches. Last month, he had expressed his desire to resign from his post to the media as he was not getting anywhere with the organisaton and neither was Prasar Bharati. Now, he has written to the ministry of information & broadcasting secretary (MIB) Ajay Mittal stating that he would like to resign prematurely from 4 November, says a PTI report.
He has also written to I&B minister Venkaiah Naidu, expressing his desire to resign from his position post-Diwali – that is after 30 October. The report goes on to state that he would like to relocate to Kolkata.
Sircar was yanked out of his position as secretary, culture, and installed as the Prasar Bharati CEO by an eminent panel led by the then Indian vice-president and a Supreme Court judge during the UPA government’s tenure in 2012. He serves as the vice-president of the Asia Pacific Broadcasting Union, which is a club of broadcasters from 67 countries. He has also had two short stints MIB secretary during his career.
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.
