ITV

Tag: C Lalrosanga

  • Supriya Sahu takes over as Director General of Doordarshan, four months after selection

    Supriya Sahu takes over as Director General of Doordarshan, four months after selection

    NEW DELHI: Supriya Sahu has taken over as Director-General, almost exactly two years after the tenure of the last full-time DG ended.

    Sahu, who has earlier served in the Information and Broadcasting Ministry as Joint Secretary (Broadcasting) took charge on 29 June, while the last full-time DG Tripurari Sharan had completed his term in July 2014.

    Sahu and F Sheheryar had been selected as full-time Directors-General of Doordarshan and All India Radio respectively by the Prasar Bharati Board on 24 February 2016 and the names were recommended to the Ministry.

    Thereafter, Sheheryar – who as Deputy Director General had been serving as interim DG since February 2014 – took charge as full time DG on 31 May this year.

    DDG C Lalrosanga had been inducted in April last year as interim DG in Doordarshan and Aparna Vaish took over as interim DG after his term ended.

    Sahu, whose term had ended in June 2014 in the I and B but had been on a three-month extension till October 2014 had sought leave for two months thereafter. She was at that time expected to join her home cadre in Tamil Nadu.

    Sahu is also from the Tamil Nadu cadre of IAS 1991 batch. She joined the I and B Ministry as Director in July 2009 and was promoted Joint Secretary in October 2011.

    This decision on 24 February 2014 was taken after the Prasar Bharati Board interviewed ten candidates for the two posts.

    Prasar Bharati sources told indiantelevision.com that there were six persons from the Indian Broadcasting (Programme) Service, three from the Indian Information Service, and one from the Indian Administrative Service.

    The interviews were held in the backdrop of a decision by the Board earlier last year that the posts for full-time DGs would not be held until the composition of the Board would be complete.

    With two part-time members being appointed, the strength of part-time members of the Board is now complete. The two members are Shashi Shekhar Vempathi, former Principal Architect of Infosys Technologies Ltd and now heading an online media company Niti Digital, and actor Kajol.

    Under the Prasar Bharati Act, the pubcaster should have six-part time members on its Board, which is headed by its chairman.
    Early last year, Chairman A Surya Prakash had told indiantelevision.com that he had made it clear to the Information and Broadcasting Ministry that there would be no full time appointments for the posts of the two Directors-General until the composition of the Board was completed.

  • Supriya Sahu takes over as Director General of Doordarshan, four months after selection

    Supriya Sahu takes over as Director General of Doordarshan, four months after selection

    NEW DELHI: Supriya Sahu has taken over as Director-General, almost exactly two years after the tenure of the last full-time DG ended.

    Sahu, who has earlier served in the Information and Broadcasting Ministry as Joint Secretary (Broadcasting) took charge on 29 June, while the last full-time DG Tripurari Sharan had completed his term in July 2014.

    Sahu and F Sheheryar had been selected as full-time Directors-General of Doordarshan and All India Radio respectively by the Prasar Bharati Board on 24 February 2016 and the names were recommended to the Ministry.

    Thereafter, Sheheryar – who as Deputy Director General had been serving as interim DG since February 2014 – took charge as full time DG on 31 May this year.

    DDG C Lalrosanga had been inducted in April last year as interim DG in Doordarshan and Aparna Vaish took over as interim DG after his term ended.

    Sahu, whose term had ended in June 2014 in the I and B but had been on a three-month extension till October 2014 had sought leave for two months thereafter. She was at that time expected to join her home cadre in Tamil Nadu.

    Sahu is also from the Tamil Nadu cadre of IAS 1991 batch. She joined the I and B Ministry as Director in July 2009 and was promoted Joint Secretary in October 2011.

    This decision on 24 February 2014 was taken after the Prasar Bharati Board interviewed ten candidates for the two posts.

    Prasar Bharati sources told indiantelevision.com that there were six persons from the Indian Broadcasting (Programme) Service, three from the Indian Information Service, and one from the Indian Administrative Service.

    The interviews were held in the backdrop of a decision by the Board earlier last year that the posts for full-time DGs would not be held until the composition of the Board would be complete.

    With two part-time members being appointed, the strength of part-time members of the Board is now complete. The two members are Shashi Shekhar Vempathi, former Principal Architect of Infosys Technologies Ltd and now heading an online media company Niti Digital, and actor Kajol.

    Under the Prasar Bharati Act, the pubcaster should have six-part time members on its Board, which is headed by its chairman.
    Early last year, Chairman A Surya Prakash had told indiantelevision.com that he had made it clear to the Information and Broadcasting Ministry that there would be no full time appointments for the posts of the two Directors-General until the composition of the Board was completed.

  • Supriya Sahu & F Sheheryar to take over as full-time DGs of Doordarshan and AIR

    Supriya Sahu & F Sheheryar to take over as full-time DGs of Doordarshan and AIR

    NEW DELHI: Former Joint Secretary (Broadcasting) in the Information and Broadcasting Ministry Supriya Sahu, and F Sheheryar, who has been holding additional charge for two years, have been named as the new full-time Directors-General of Doordarshan and All India Radio respectively.

    This decision is understood to have been taken after the Prasar Bharati Board today interviewed 10 candidates for the two posts.

    Sheheryar, Deputy Director General, had taken over as interim DG in February 2014 in AIR, while C Lalrosanga was inducted in April last year as interim DG in Doordarshan. Thus, Sheheryar has been confirmed for the post he was holding as additional charge.

    Prasar Bharati sources told Indiantelevision.com that there were six persons from the Indian Broadcasting (Programme) Service, three from the Indian Information Service, and one from the Indian Administrative Service.

    The interviews were held in the backdrop of a decision by the Board earlier last year that the posts for full-time DGs would not be held until the composition of the Board would be complete.

    With two part-time members being appointed, the strength of part-time members of the Board is now complete.

    While Shashi Shekhar Vempathi, former Principal Architect of Infosys Technologies, who now heads an online media company Niti Digital, formally joined the Board today, actor Kajol will join when she comes back from overseas where she is shooting for a film.

    Under the Prasar Bharati Act, the pubcaster should have six-part time members on its Board, which is headed by its chairman.

    Early last year, chairman Dr A Surya Prakash had informed this website that he had made it clear to the Information and Broadcasting Ministry that there would be no full time appointments for the posts of the two Directors-General until the composition of the Board was completed.

  • Supriya Sahu & F Sheheryar to take over as full-time DGs of Doordarshan and AIR

    Supriya Sahu & F Sheheryar to take over as full-time DGs of Doordarshan and AIR

    NEW DELHI: Former Joint Secretary (Broadcasting) in the Information and Broadcasting Ministry Supriya Sahu, and F Sheheryar, who has been holding additional charge for two years, have been named as the new full-time Directors-General of Doordarshan and All India Radio respectively.

    This decision is understood to have been taken after the Prasar Bharati Board today interviewed 10 candidates for the two posts.

    Sheheryar, Deputy Director General, had taken over as interim DG in February 2014 in AIR, while C Lalrosanga was inducted in April last year as interim DG in Doordarshan. Thus, Sheheryar has been confirmed for the post he was holding as additional charge.

    Prasar Bharati sources told Indiantelevision.com that there were six persons from the Indian Broadcasting (Programme) Service, three from the Indian Information Service, and one from the Indian Administrative Service.

    The interviews were held in the backdrop of a decision by the Board earlier last year that the posts for full-time DGs would not be held until the composition of the Board would be complete.

    With two part-time members being appointed, the strength of part-time members of the Board is now complete.

    While Shashi Shekhar Vempathi, former Principal Architect of Infosys Technologies, who now heads an online media company Niti Digital, formally joined the Board today, actor Kajol will join when she comes back from overseas where she is shooting for a film.

    Under the Prasar Bharati Act, the pubcaster should have six-part time members on its Board, which is headed by its chairman.

    Early last year, chairman Dr A Surya Prakash had informed this website that he had made it clear to the Information and Broadcasting Ministry that there would be no full time appointments for the posts of the two Directors-General until the composition of the Board was completed.

  • DD confident of achieving 112-channel target on FreeDish by March-end

    DD confident of achieving 112-channel target on FreeDish by March-end

    NEW DELHI: Indian pubcaster Doordarshan is now confident that it will acquire the capacity of carrying 112 channels on its free-to-air (FTA) direct to home (DTH) service FreeDish by March-end.
     
    DD director general C Lalrosanga told Indiantelevision.com that a meeting had been held recently by the engineering team in FreeDish and Doordarshan with experts from the Bangalore based ByDesign India.
     
    DD is acquiring ByDesign’s conditional access system (CAS) so as to increase its channel offerings from the current 64 by the end of March 2016.
     
    The meeting was primarily aimed at assessing the requirement of CAS-enabled set top boxes (STBs) that will be needed to cover all regions of the country.
     
    Lalrosanga said the DTH player will switch over to MPEG4 from the current MPEG2 in two phases. “The first phase may begin this month,” he informed.
     
    Late last year, the Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY) approved a proposal by ByDesign India to develop an Indian conditional access system. ByDesign was to receive a support amount of Rs 19.79 crore from DeitY to develop the new system in association with Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC).
     
    The ByDesign model is totally indigenous and built for DVB-C setup. This CAS solution will enable broadcasters to control access to their services by viewers, and thereby enabling them to extend their business models to subscription based schemes.
     
    This will mean that the FreeDish will become encrypted but will remain FTA. In addition to helping increase the number of channels on the platform, this will enable FreeDish to gauge the exact number of households relying on FreeDish as encrypted STBs will only be available with authorised dealers.
     
    Lalrosanga went on to add that many homes were gradually switching over to FreeDish as they could then get their entire entertainment for a one-time fee of purchasing a dish, which costs as low as Rs 700 to Rs 1200.
     
    Prasar Bharati CEO Jawhar Sircar had said early last year that FreeDish’s aim was to reach 112 channels within a year or so.
     
    At present, there is no vacant slot on Freedish since all channels that were on the platform and whose licences had expired have come back through the 24 e-auctions conducted over the past year.
     
    Interestingly, two new entrants on the platform – Aaj Tak and Big Magic – are pay channels, which are being run as FTA on FreeDish.
     
    DD sources said that the reference interconnect agreement signed by these two channels no longer carries any non-discriminatory clause as it refers to FreeDish.

  • DD Freedish set to beam up to 250 channels under 12th Plan

    DD Freedish set to beam up to 250 channels under 12th Plan

    NEW DELHI: Doordarshan’s free-to-air (FTA) direct-to-home (DTH) Freedish, which currently has only 64 slots for television channels and is expected to go up to 112 by March-end, has received a shot in the arm for upgradation to 250 TV channels under the 12th Plan.

    Information and Broadcasting Minister Arun Jaitley told Parliament that the Department of Space had agreed in principle to provide additional transponders on new GSAT 15 satellite required for 250 TV channels

    Meanwhile, he said that DD was facing issues in implementing Conditional Access System (CAS), which is a part of upgraded system. But it had now decided to adopt Indian Conditional Access System (Indian CAS), which is being finalised by Department of Electronics and Information Technology. As was reported earlier by Indiantelevision.com, DD is acquiring the Bangalore based ByDesign India’s CAS.

    Late last year, the Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY) approved a proposal by ByDesign India to develop an Indian conditional access system. ByDesign was to receive a support amount of Rs 19.79 crore from DeitY to develop the new system in association with Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC).

    The ByDesign model is totally indigenous and built for DVB-C setup. This CAS solution will enable broadcasters to control access to their services by viewers, and thereby enabling them to extend their business models to subscription based schemes. 

    Apart from the TV channels, Freedish also beams 21 All India Radio (AIR) channels. 

    DD director general C Lalrosanga had earlier told Indiantelevision.com that the DTH player will switch over to MPEG 4 from the current MPEG 2 in two phases. “The first phase may begin by early next month,” he informed.

    Meanwhile even as regional channels of DD switched over to INSAT 4B, DD’s main channels have also shifted to GSAT 10, which was launched in September 2012. The regional channels were shifted in view of End of Life (EOL) of INSAT-3A as declared by Indian Space Research Organisation. Four new transponders have been provided for these channels on INSAT-4B by ISRO. 

    It has 12 Ku-Band, 12 C-Band and 6 lower extended C-Band Transponders. 

    Now GSAT 10 started transmission on C-Band transponders.

    The channels that have been switched to GSAT 10 are DD National, DD News, DD Bharati, DD Sports, DD Urdu, DD India, Rajya Sabha TV and DD HD.

     

    Department of Space sources told this website that GSAT 15 satellite will ultimately accommodate Freedish, as it has more capacity of transponders to provide more bandwidth and better coverage. 

    GSAT-15 satellite, launched recently, has planned its mission for 12 years and this satellite will be located at same direction of INSAT-3A / INSAT-4B satellite at 93.5° East Longitude.

    GSAT-15 carries 24 Ku-band transponders with 36 Mhz high bandwidth.

    GSAT-15 also has two GAGAN navigational payloads and 2 Ku-Band beacons. This satellite will be use mainly for Direct to Home services, radio navigation services and VSAT services.

  • Doordarshan signs MOU to disseminate key health related schemes

    Doordarshan signs MOU to disseminate key health related schemes

    NEW DELHI: Doordarshan’s terrestrial and satellite channels will run video spots produced and provided by the Health Ministry aimed at informing and educating the target group of audience about sustained health campaigns.

     

    A memorandum of understanding (MOU) was signed today between Doordarshan and the Health and Family Welfare Ministry to facilitate the telecast of Ministry related video spots on Doordarshan’s national and regional networks.

     

    The MoU was signed by K.B. Agarwal, Additional Secretary, on behalf of the Health Ministry and Doordarshan director general C Lalrosanga. This MoU was signed in the presence of Health Ministry B P Sharma.

     

    The Health Ministry has placed business in excess of Rs 50 crore for this purpose. In turn Doordarshan has offered a special bonus plan to the Ministry, thus contributing towards the government goal of health for all.

     

    Sharma said this MoU would help the Health Ministry to disseminate its programmes of health and special messages of prevention of health across the country in different languages through the vast network of Doordarshan, which has the highest reach especially in rural areas.

     

    Lalrosanga said Doordarshan as a public service broadcaster has the primary responsibility to help various Ministries and Government departments to disseminate their schemes of social development to the needy and this is the primary reason that Doordarshan has extended special schemes to help the Ministry in reaching their target group. 

     

    Additional secretary N S Kang; joint secretaries Dharitri Panda and Rakesh Kumar; director Manisha Verma from the Health Ministry and DD additional director general Ranjan Mukherjee and deputy DG C K Jain were also present on the occasion.

  • DD Freedish to acquire ByDesign’s CAS technology for MPEG4 expansion

    DD Freedish to acquire ByDesign’s CAS technology for MPEG4 expansion

    NEW DELHI: Doordarshan’s free-to-air (FTA) direct to home (DTH) service Freedish is planning to acquire Bangalore based ByDesign India’s conditional access system (CAS) so as to increase its channel offerings to 112 from the current 64 by the end of March 2016.

     

    In conversation with Indiantelevision.com, DD Director General C Lalrosanga said that the DTH player will switch over to MPEG 4 from the current MPEG 2 in two phases. “The first phase may begin by early next month,” he informed.

     

    Late last year, the Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY) approved a proposal by ByDesign India to develop an Indian conditional access system. ByDesign was to receive a support amount of Rs 19.79 crore from DeitY to develop the new system in association with Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC).

     

    The ByDesign model is totally indigenous and built for DVB-C setup. This CAS solution will enable broadcasters to control access to their services by viewers, and thereby enabling them to extend their business models to subscription based schemes.

     

    This will mean that the Freedish will become encrypted but will remain FTA. In addition to helping increase the number of channels on the platform, this will enable Freedish to gauge the exact number of households relying on Freedish as encrypted set top boxes (STBs) will only be available with authorised dealers.

     

    Lalrosanga said that collection of rural data by the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) India had shown that the claims made by Doordarshan about its reach were not erroneous. He said the BARC ratings had shown that both DD and Freedish had a tremendous reach in semi-urban and rural areas all over the country.

     

    Lalrosanga went on to add that many homes were gradually switching over to Freedish as they could then get their entire entertainment for a one-time fee of purchasing a dish, which cost as low as Rs 700 to Rs 1200.

     

    Prasar Bharati CEO Jawhar Sircar had said earlier this year that Freedish’s aim was to reach 112 channels within a year or so.

     

    At present, there is no vacant slot on Freedish since all channels that were on the platform and whose licences had expired have come back through the 24 e-auctions conducted over the past year.

     

    Interestingly, the two new entrants on the platform – Aaj Tak and Big Magic – are pay channels, which are being run as FTA on Freedish. DD sources said that the reference interconnect agreement signed by these two channels no longer carries any non-discriminatory clause as it refers to Freedish.

     

    Lalrosanga also added that DD was working towards bringing regional language films to the prime time slots over the weekend. Additionally, the pubcaster was actively thinking on the lines of a dedicated channel for children and young people. 

  • DD eyes balance of role as entertainer & pubcaster; to launch 4 new shows

    DD eyes balance of role as entertainer & pubcaster; to launch 4 new shows

    NEW DELHI: Doordarshan is making headway in playing dual roles of being an entertainer and at the same time shouldering its responsibilities as a public service broadcaster.

     

    Senior Doordarshan (DD) executives indicate that they have to walk on the razor’s edge as they have take care of their public service broadcaster responsibilities even as they entertain audiences.

     

    As a step towards achieving this goal, the pubcaster will soon be launching four new shows in various genres. It may be recalled that in August too, DD had revamped its programming by launching five new shows. 

     

    DD director general C. Lalrosanga and deputy director general Deepa Chandra said that DD could not be complacent because it had the largest reach in the country. “Bringing a channel on television and then ensuring it gets good viewership is a major task in itself, particularly for a public service broadcaster,” Chandra said.

     

    Chandra added, “The slow and steady approach adopted by us to garner good viewership and ratings has started to show promising results. Keeping with that, our second stage of introducing fresh content in prime time band is beginning from 19 October.”

     

    The four new shows that will go on air this month include two crime shows – IPS Diary and Mashaal, a love saga titled Albeli – Kahaani Pyaar Ki and a musical reality show called Sur Sagar.

     

    Sur Sagar will, for the first time, see music bands competing against each other and not just singers or dancers. The weekend reality show will have three judges namely Leslie Lewis, Soham Chabraborty and Shilpa Rai. The show will go on air from 31 October and will be aired on Saturday and Sunday at 9 pm.

     

    The USP of the hourly show will lie in the fact that both bands and singers share a common platform, and 20 bands and 20 singers have been shortlisted to compete for the title in the show. Live auditions were held in six cities: Delhi, Amritsar, Lucknow, Kolkata, Hyderabad and Mumbai.

     

    The show will also be unique in that it will promote the original compositions of the singers and bands and not depend on film songs. The first season will have 52 episodes.

     

    Lewis said he had agreed to be on the show after seeing the massive change in content on DD National, adding that a good song appeals to all. Director Shonal Bose and music director Siddharth added that bands were being given recognition for the first time, despite the fact that all shows featuring singers or dances always had a musical accompaniment.

     

    The second show – IPS Diary, will see Kavita Chaudhary as the presenter and anchor. The show will be telecast from 19 October everyMonday and Tuesday at 10.30 pm.

     

    It may be recalled that Chaudhary had became a cult figure with her role of a woman police officer in Doordarshan’s Udaan series almost two decades earlier. In IPS Diary, she appears as a retired IPS officer relating the tale of some of the crimes solved by her.

     

    Chaudhary said that the aim of the show will not be to frighten people as crime shows on some other channels did, but to send out a positive signal that there were ways to fight the crime wave. At the same time, she said being a public service channel did not mean that DD should stop entertaining people. Producer Rajesh Beri, who is known for his crime shows on other channels said, “I do not want to sell the pains of others.”

     

    The third show is yet another crime show titled Mashaal, which will launch on 21 October and will be telecast on Wednesday and Thursdayat 10.30 pm. Actor director Rajiv Kumar said that this series was based on actual crime stories, which have been cleverly changed to avoid any controversies. The show’s aim was to tell the people how they could change the system.

     

    The fourth show titled Albeli will see actor Karan Trivedi, who had appeared as a child star in the Hamraahi many years earlier, as the show’s male lead. The series is the story of a poor girl marrying a rich boy, and will be telecast five days a week at 9.30 pm from 26 October.

     

    The show has been written by Harsha Jagdish. “Entertainment cannot be without a message and a soul. It is often said that the man and the woman in a relationship are like two wheels of a horse-pulled cart but I have attempted to show that there are times when either the husband or the wife have to take on the role of the ‘saarthi’ (driver) as well,” she said.

     

    In reply to a question, Chandra said that unlike the previous practice of some series being run only twice or once a week, DD was gradually moving to the five days a week pattern. However, she added that DD would make sure that no series went on endlessly.

     

    DD officials also said that they were aware that the channel’s largest audience was in the 15 to 40 age group and had therefore planned its programmes accordingly.

  • DD Gangtok Kendra commences beaming via satellite

    DD Gangtok Kendra commences beaming via satellite

    NEW DELHI: The local programmes from the Gangtok Kendra of Doordarshan were uplinked to satellite on 15 September.

     

    Doordarshan director general C. Lalrosanga was present on the occasion and welcomed Gangtok to what he called the ‘satellite club’ by coming at par with other Northeastern states.

     

    The telecast of local programming of DD Gangtok has also been increased by two hours from today, Lalrosanga told Indiantelevision.com in a telephonic message.

     

    The development comes even as a proposal for separate 24-hour Doordarshan channels for each state in the Northeast is pending with the Information and Broadcasting Ministry.

     

    Although DD has a 24×7 Northeast channel at present, it covers all the states with the result that not enough time is available to the programming of each state.

     

    While Prasar Bharati had initially proposed three more channels for the Northeast around two years earlier, this had been revised to one channel per state late last year.

     

    It was proposed that since Doordarshan had infrastructure worth several hundred crores in each of the states, it would require around Rs 6 – 10 crore for initiating the production of software of these channels. However, it would then require regular funding to keep the channels running.