I&B Ministry
Veteran ballet dancer, eminent medico join Prasar Bharati board
NEW DELHI: Veteran ballet dancer Mamata Shankar, renowned cardiac surgeon Sunil Kapoor and senior journalist George Verghese have been appointed members of the Prasar Bharati Board with immediate effect.
The new appointees are part of the six part-time members provided for under the Prasar Bharati (Broadcasting Corporation of India) Act 1990 which was brought into force from September 1997.
Chaired by senior media expert MV Kamath and executive member BS Lalli, the board includes Chitra Mudgal and Bhupen Hazarika as part-time members.
Verghese, who has been working with news agency United News of India for the last 35 years, will be on the board for five years.
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.
