ITV

Tag: Doordarshan

  • ‘Galli Galli Sim Sim’ back on Doordarshan

    ‘Galli Galli Sim Sim’ back on Doordarshan

    MUMBAI:  Sesame Workshop in India (SWI) has launched the sixth season of Galli Galli Sim Sim, the popular children’s programme, on Doordarshan with a brand new message, “Hasaye Zabardast, Seekhaye Mast’.

    The show aimed at children aged 0-8 years believes in harnessing the power of television to provide a strong early childhood educational foundation to preschoolers. Season six being aired on Doordarshan, which reaches out to 13 million children, focuses strongly on literacy and numeracy. Aprt from it, it will also focus on other areas of child development such as problem solving, caring and sharing, giving a head start to a significant number of children with little to no access to early childhood education.

    Doordarshan director general Tripurari Sharan said, “As a public service broadcaster, we have to always look out for a holistic programming mix as we have a vast and diverse viewership.  With Galli Galli Sim Sim we are able to reach out to children from all strata of society and we are extremely glad to continue its broadcast on our network.”

    The show was first aired in 2006. “As India’s first educational programme on TV, Galli Galli Sim Sim has played a pioneering role in imparting high quality early childhood learning and providing children with a head start in understanding and communicating in the world around them,” said Sesame Workshop India MD Sashwati Banerjee. “We believe we have a critical role to play in making early childhood education take center stage in India and by being on Doordarshan this takes us closer to our goal.”

    The show started airing from 14 December, 2013 at 9 am and will run every Saturday at the same time, a total of 52 episodes of 22 minutes each.

  • The Year of Rapid Change

    The Year of Rapid Change

    By Ranjan Thakur

    The year 2013 witnessed a large number of activities in Prasar Bharati and Doordarshan.  A major achievement of Doordarshan was in rebranding its Free-to-Air DTH services as ‘DD Freedish’ which highlights its USP of being Free-to-Air.  Earlier, the name DD Direct Plus did not catch on because the rural audience could not connect with the name.  The name ‘DD Freedish’ now adequately conveys the USP of the product and the DTH service which is quite popular and far ahead of its paid rivals, is likely to increase its popularity further.

    The project of commissioning of enhanced capacity to 120 channels up from the present 59 channels is likely to be completed by March, 2014 and will substantially enhance the popularity of the product.  It is expected that given the background of the ongoing digitisation process in the country, a large number of cable users will shift to the DD’s Freedish in 2014 especially during the Phase III and Phase IV of the digitisation process when it will start touching the semi-urban and rural viewers.

     A matter of great satisfaction for Doordarshan has been the successful auction of the channel slots for the private channels on the DD’s Freedish platform.  A series of steps, including staggering of the auction process, enhanced the revenue of DD by nearly 40 per cent from the previous rounds of auction.  Presently, the platform is commanding an annual carriage fee of Rs 6 crore per channel due to its large reach.

    DD looks forward to the conclusion of the process of launching its international channel, DD India in the territory of Europe.  DD has received a very lucrative offer from one of the major operators in Europe for placement of DD India w.e.f. January, 2014, which is likely to be accepted with the approval of the Prasar Bharati Board soon.  DD India has already been launched in Canada and will be launched in the territories of Korea, Middle East and Central Asia in Early 2014. 

    The availability of DD India over the entire Europe including northern parts of Africa will substantially enhance the popularity of DD India globally.  As the stakeholders are aware that a global channel requires substantial investment, DD proposes to expand the global footprint of DD India in a phased manner after analysing the experience in Europe, Korea, Canada and Central Asia.

    Doordarshan is in the process of finalising its FPC for the expansion of its international channel which will be a mix of news and general entertainment.

    Doordarshan also successfully upgraded the four regional channels of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan during 2013.  These channels were working in four hour terrestrial mode only while substantial investment in infrastructure, equipment and manpower had already been made.  In order to effectively utilise the investment made in these locations, a decision to upgrade these channels to 24 hour cable and satellite channel was taken and implemented within a period three months without any major investment. 

    The current TAM data indicates that while DD-Bihar and DD-Uttar Pradesh are already No 1, DD- Madhya Pradesh is No 2 while DD-Rajasthan is No 3, in their respective states in terms of popularity.  The upgradation of these four state channels is a major step forward to tap the regional television market.  DD now proposes to move on to upgradation of DD-Jharkhand, DD-Uttarakhand, DD-Chattisgarh and DD- Himachal Pradesh on the same pattern of the four channels.  It was our experience that the viewership of terrestrial channels was adversely affected in cable and satellite territories which needed to be addressed.  Given the success of the four regional channels upgradation, Doordarshan is confident that this process will be completed shortly and these channels are likely to be quite popular in their territory.

    We (at DD) expect the next year to be an exciting year when a number of these initiatives will start yielding results for DD with substantial enhancement of revenue besides sourcing of quality software.

    DD has enhanced its role in the industry’s body namely Indian Broadcasting Federation and has a place on the Board of Directors after quite some years.  DD expects to play its rightful role being the only public broadcaster in the country and share its experiences while lending its strength to the industry body.

    DD is on the Board of Directors of the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC), an initiative of the industry to develop alternative TV ratings.  DD has substantially increased its role in BARC and as the industry is aware, an alternate television rating system based on the audio watermarking technology is likely to be initiated by June, 2014.

    Doordarshan has set up a professional Audience Research Unit to analyse the available data related to the television rating points.  In the process, Doordarshan has shut down its Doordarshan Audience Research Team (DART), an in-house system.  The present practice of a professional Audience Research Unit has now brought DD at par with its private counterparts.

    Amongst several other major initiatives, Doordarshan is in the process of finalisation of external partners for monitoring its channel’s popularity of various networks, especially cable as there have been concerns that the law of the land is not being followed in this regard.  DD expects to partner with professional agencies in order to monitor the violations of the law which is likely to improve its viewership as in absence of any carriage fee being paid by DD, cable operators tend to put DD channels in the difficult to watch remote places.  DD has finalised the process to appoint a professional agency to provide electronic programming guide to its channels on all cable and DTH platforms besides upgrading its own EPG system on DD’s Freedish.

    Doordarshan is in the last stages of finalising the process of outsourcing its corporate advertisement sales of DD News which has faced some difficulties in the recent past.  The hiring of a professional agency is likely to improve its marketing of commercial time.  DD has also floated an RFP to improve its billing system which would network the entire Doordarshan Kendras for effective marketing, monitoring and billing of the commercial ad time.  DD has also focused on the Government business through its Development Communication Division and it is expected that a record increment of 40 per cent in Government revenue received by DD will be registered in this current financial year.

    DD has finalised its new commissioning guidelines which are based on the industry accepted practices of Advertisement Funded Programme, revenue sharing and simulcast.  These new guidelines are expected to source better quality programming for DD while allowing outside producers to share the positive revenue gained from quality products.  This policy will also not require DD to commit itself to funding low quality and low cost programming.

    DD is working towards the amendment of the mandatory sharing of Sports Signals Act, 2007 as the present Act requires all sporting events of national importance to be carried on DD National only, where the opportunity cost makes the present arrangement financially unviable.  DD was proud to have won the exclusive broadcast rights for the recently concluded World Chess Championship in Chennai.  DD has won some major legal battles for the transmission of sports in India as the entire validity of the mandatory sharing of sports Signals Act, 2007 has been questioned in courts.  The recent legal victory of Doordarshan in regard to ICC T-20 World Cup Championship in June, 2013 was a shot in the arm for DD.

    DD has decided to e-auction its film slots in order to bring in transparencies to the entire system and also enhance revenue by allowing the bidders to buy slots on the best prices as deemed fit.

    We expect the next year to be an exciting year when a number of these initiatives will start yielding results for DD with substantial enhancement of revenue besides sourcing of quality software.

    (Ranjan Thakur is additional director general – programmes, Doordarshan. The views expressed in the above article are the author’s personal views)

  • Prasar Bharati to be upgraded as MIB plans to invest Rs 3,500 crore in it

    Prasar Bharati to be upgraded as MIB plans to invest Rs 3,500 crore in it

    MUMBAI: The government broadcaster, Prasar Bharati is set to see a major advancement. Reportedly, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) is planning to invest close to Rs 3,500 crore on upgrading the pubcaster’s broadcast infrastructure and network development, especially in the border areas of Jammu and Kashmir and the North-Eastern states.

    According to a report by The Hindu Business Line, the proposal has been recommended by the Expenditure Finance Committee and is up for approval from the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA). “The funds are expected to be used to strengthen the transmission in border areas by augmenting the broadcast infrastructure so as to counter anti-terrorist activities, among other initiatives,” reveals the daily.

    Apart from this, the fund is also expected to be used for digitisation of transmitters and studios of All India Radio (AIR) and Doordarshan, High Definition TV, expansion of DD Direct to Home and modernisation of DD and AIR. 

    Reportedly, the Ministry is already monitoring this project through inter-ministerial meetings with representatives from the Ministries of Home Affairs, External Affairs, Defence, and the Cabinet Secretariat, among others.

    Currently, 273 TV transmitters are operational in the border districts. “In J&K, five high power TV transmitter projects are under implementation, while plans are afoot to put in more transmitters in the Indo-Nepal border,” reports the daily.

  • News channels eye elections

    News channels eye elections

    MUMBAI: Back in the eighties, veteran journalists Dr Prannoy Roy and Vinod Dua took the nation by storm when they co-anchored the first-ever election analyses programs on the then sole television channel, Doordarshan.

     

    Nearly three decades and the cable and satellite TV explosion later, journalists and news television channels of all hues continue to romance the elections with the same (if not greater) fervour.

     

    With ongoing elections in four states in North India and one in the North East, and general elections due in the first half of 2014, there couldn’t have been a better time for news channels to engage in a bit of one-upmanship with respect to news and programs around the polls. Indiantelevison.com takes a look…

     

    India News is airing a campaign called Kissa Kursi Ka showcasing ground events across Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Rajasthan and Delhi. Citizens are part of the live debates on this program.

     

    Urdu news channel, Aalami Samay, features a show called Mukhyamantri ke paanch saal which looks at the five years of Members of Parliament and what they’ve done towards roadways, power supply, safety and security among other causes. Another show titled Aapke numainde..unke wade assesses whether these MPs have succeeded in keeping the promises they made before getting elected to office.

     

    ABP News is well known for its show, Kaun Banega Mukhyamantri while India TV is looking at building a strong team under the supervision of QW Naqvi, who has newly joined the channel as editorial director, to make their coverage of this election a talking point for the general elections coming up next year. “These assembly elections are a build-up to the general elections in 2014; the focus is on capturing viewership now and to be their first choice for news coverage, analyses and insights on elections right till the general elections,” says India TV MD and CEO Ritu Dhawan.
        

    Elections are a bonanza of sorts for news channels, which expect viewership to head north during that time. For instance, India News and Aalami Samay expect their viewership to go up by 15- 20 per cent while ABP is confident of garnering an almost 50-100 per cent increase, largely due to the main shots slated for prime time viewing although election programming is scheduled for the whole day right through the elections.

     

    India News and News X plan live election coverage from 43 locations, including 16 live OB vans and 16 live units. “Elections are like festivals for every news channel,” says India News and News X CEO R K Arora.

    Not only are elections significant in grabbing eyeballs, they are also important for news channels to make their mark. “Elections should not only be seen as an eyeball prospect, but also as an area where media can contribute in the process of nation building,” says Dhawan.

     

    While News Nation CEO Shailesh Kumar says: “This poll will also reflect the mood of the nation and take of the people at a crucial juncture when two big leaders (Narendra Modi and Rahul Gandhi) are being projected as the future of this country. A very decisive poll, which has the capacity to shape the geo-political contours of the nation.”

     

    Advertisers too are part of this gold (read election) rush. For India TV, advertisers come in the categories including Automobile, Cement, Hosiery, Food processing and FMCG.

     

    Says Dhawan: “The rule ‘Eyeball:Price’ is definitely applicable.”, India News and News X have got on boards brands such as Mircrosoft, Renault, Mahindra, Tata Motors, Idea cellular, Honda Motorcycles, Godrej and Whirlpool on their lists.

     

    With channels eyeing elections as a good ‘squeeze’ in terms of viewers and advertisers, most of them have also planned exit polls at the end of the elections.

     

    Coming to the anchors, be it a Deepak Chaurasia or Rajat Sharma or any of your favourite hosts, they are all busy trying to get the best news bytes from specialists, politicians and the public to grab the most number of eyeballs.

  • Why telecasting cricket hurts DD

    Why telecasting cricket hurts DD

    MUMBAI: It has been six years that India’s public broadcaster Doordarshan (DD) started showing cricket matches to the Indian audience for free, allowing even the underprivileged viewers to watch their favourite sport.

    Apparently the public broadcaster has to pay a price for citizens of India to watch cricket matches for free. And if you think it hardly matters, it’s about time to correct it. Let’s first understand how the whole process actually works.

     In 2007, the Sports Broadcasting Act was passed that stated that live signals of all cricket matches (ODI and T20) of national importance that are played in India must be shared with the public broadcaster DD and AIR (All India Radio). Post the formation of this law, any commercial sports channel needs to share its signals with DD for all such matches. In a recent ruling, it directed Star Sports to provide feeds without advertisements since Star Sports is currently the right holder of these matches.

    Before a series, both the commercial broadcaster and DD get together and bid for the Revenue Management Control (RMC).The highest bidder becomes the RMC and gets the rights to market the advertisements for the match. According to the Act, 75 per cent of the revenue will be with the main channel and 25 per cent will be with DD. All the money is pooled into an escrow account to maintain transparency over the dealings and revenue earned. If DD makes more than the bidding amount, it profits, but if it doesn’t meet the target then it has to shell out money from its pocket to give the 75 per cent of the bid amount to the other party.

    Mukesh Sharma feels that it it the well wishes of people that works for DD in the end

    When DD telecasts these important matches, it loses out the revenue that it generates from its daily soaps on the national channel. At the same time, the regional channels have terrestrial support between 8: 00 pm to 11: 00 pm from the national channel. So, while a match is aired on one channel, shows from several DD channels are cut off for hours.

    “For DD, this is a loss making exercise but the government wants to show cricket to even those who cannot pay for the commercial channels,” says DD Sahyadri additional director general Mukesh Sharma.

    DD has always battled to have at least a 50:50 deal along with suitable changes in the law. The revenue that DD makes through its shows, which would have been telecast in place of the cricket match, is called as the opportunity cost (OC). In order for DD to gain its OC, it has to earn four times the revenue from the cricket match. For example, if the OC is Rs 5 crore, then DD needs to make Rs 20 crore (excluding tax) so that Rs 15 crore is given to the channel that holds the rights and DD recovers Rs 5 crore.

    However, the possibility of this happening is nearly zero because of the difference in advertisers on board with DD and the commercial channel. Factors such as opponent country, type of match, time of viewing, audience demographics come into the picture. For an India vs Pakistan match, the ad rates may be high, the bid would be high too as compared to an India vs Zimbabwe one. “During prime time, we suffer huge losses and there isn’t much money in the market that can help us recover our opportunity cost,” adds Sharma.

    Had test matches also been included in the Act, probably the pubcaster would have been constantly stitching holes in its pocket. In fact, a recent letter by the Prasar Bharati to the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting  (I&B), DD said that although it had wanted to telecast Sachin Tendulkar’s  final match, restrictions in the Act and the possibility of a huge financial loss thwarted it from doing so. The OC for the two test matches would be Rs 10 crore as compared to the advertising revenue of just Rs 1 crore. That signals a loss of Rs 9.25 crore for it.

    The letter also highlighted how it was a huge financial loss for DD when the money allotted to Prasar Bharati was cut down. Therefore, another request to amend the act has been put forth that lets the pubcaster choose the matches it wants to telecast and the channel on which it wants to show it.

    The Sports Broadcasting Act of 2007 says, “No content rights owner or holder and no television or radio broadcasting service provider shall carry a live television broadcast on any cable or Direct- to- Home network or radio commentary broadcast in India of sporting events of national importance, unless it simultaneously shares the live broadcasting signal, without its advertisements, with the Prasar Bharati to enable them to re-transmit the same on its terrestrial networks and Direct- to- Home networks in such manner and on such terms and conditions as may be specified.”

    Prasar Bharati has asked for it to be changed to “its terrestrial networks or Direct- to- Home networks” or “on its FTA networks available on various platforms” so that they have flexibility on the channel they want to show it. The OC on DD Sports is negligible.

    Prasar Bharati has been asking for the revenue sharing to be changed to 40:60 in its favour. Since the initiation of the Act, 43 such matches have been telecast (ODIs and T20) till November 2012. Out of them, in 18 matches the bid amount quoted was not enough to meet the OC while for 25 matches it suffered a loss even when the OC was not realised. The demand for changes in the act, it says, will be consistent with its aim to provide viewers free viewing of the matches without having to subscribe to pay channels.

    “It needs to be re-emphasised that carriage of sporting events of national importance on DD National results in disruption of normal programmes and loss of precious revenue. The proposed amendment will help Prasar Bharati in realising optimally its existing revenue potential and enhancing it further,” reads a letter dated 17 September 2013 by Prasar Bharati finance member B B Pandit to the I & B ministry additional secretary J S Mathur.

    Star Sports is currently the channel that has the rights to broadcast all such matches and has to share the feed with DD. The channel refused to comment on this story saying the matter is sub-judice. In October this year, the Delhi High Court directed Star Sports to provide signals devoid of advertisements to DD, which it had earlier said it cannot do as they come embedded with the feed.

    DD is a public broadcaster so its main sources of revenue are public funds and advertising revenue. “Well, even if we don’t get any money, we make do with the well wishes of the people,” says Sharma.

  • Australia Network set to launch on DD Direct+

    Australia Network set to launch on DD Direct+

    MUMBAI: DD Direct+ consumers, starting November, will have an added network to their channel list. Following a recent agreement between ABC International and Doordarshan, Australia Network is all set to launch on DD Direct+.  

     

    Australia Network is a 24/7 entertainment and news channel offering viewers a mix of content from around Australia and the region covering news, sport, science, education, arts, children’s programming, drama and English language learning.  The channel is available in 45 countries across the Asia and Pacific region.

     

    To mark the launch of the new service, the ABC’s agenda-setting panel discussion programme, Q&A, wasl broadcast live from Delhi on Monday 18 November.  Q & A’s host, Tony Jones, led a high profile panel which included India’s Minister of State for Human Resource Development Shashi Tharoor; former Australian cricketer Stuart MacGill;  Australian-born Bollywood star Pallavi Sharda; outspoken conservative commentator Swapan Dasgupta; Tehelka editor Shoma Chaudhury and award-winning TV host and journalist Karan Thapar.  The panel discussed issues of mutual interest to both countries in front of an audience comprising both Indians and Australians.

     

    ABC International is also set to launch a new website for India, AustraliaPlus.com/India – the new digital home of the best of Australian content covering arts and culture, business, education, health, lifestyle, news and current affairs, science, sports, technology and travel.  The website will offer content in both English and Hindi as well as will have an Indian news feed from Doordashan.  The website’s launch closely follows the introduction of ABC International’s Chinese mobile phone app into the China market last month.

     

    “As 2013 nears an end, we are seeing an enormous growth in the sharing of content between India and Australia through a number of channels,” said ABC International CEO Lynley Marshall.

     

    Marshall said the initiatives reflected the growing demand for more information about contemporary Australian life, the growing connections in business, education and tourism and the people to people links.

     

    DD Direct+ CEO Jawhar Sircar said, “We really look forward to having ABC hosted on our DD Direct+ as it helps Indians to understand and appreciate Australia and its culture in a far better manner, and with more depth than at present.”

     

    “We also look forward to ABC assisting and guiding us in telling Australian audiences more about India, its people, and its culture,” he added.

     

    Australia Network is also available in key metropolitan markets across the Indian sub-continent via a number of regional cable and satellite television operators.

  • DD to telecast a rare tale of Indian compassion for Europeans during World War II

    DD to telecast a rare tale of Indian compassion for Europeans during World War II

    NEW DELHI: A Little Poland in India a poignant story of around one thousand orphaned children from Poland, who found a sanctuary in India at the height of Nazi German Dictator Hitler’s atrocities in Poland, will be telecast by Doordarshan tomorrow.

     

    A Little Poland in India will be officially telecast 10 November at 3:00 pm and on11 November at 7:30 am on DD National and will there after open the inaugural ‘Kinoteka Polish Film Festval’ on18 November at India Habitat Centre.

     

    The hour-long documentary is the true and captivating story of the then Jam Saheb (Ruler) Digvijaysinhji Ranjitsinhji Jadeja of Nawanagar,nephew of famous Indian cricketer Ranjitsinhji Vibhaji of the Jadeja clan,a princely state in the Kathiawar Peninsula, off the land of Gujarat. It is the heart-warming story of an enriched historical bond between India and Poland. It is a story that represents people-to people contact in its most humane form, beyond borders and across continents.

     

    During World War II, about 1000 Polish children from war-torn, occupied Poland and Soviet prison camps in Stalin’s Siberia travelled all the way to India, where Jam Saheb took personal risks to make arrangements at a time when the world was at war and India was struggling for its Independence. He built a camp for them in a place called Balachadi beside his summer palace, 25 km from his capitalcity Jamnagar, and made them feel at home.

     

    This is the first film that has been co-produced between the governments of India and Poland under the Audio-Visual agreement between both countries. The co-producers are Doordarshan and the Gujarat Government in India, and the InA (National Audiovisual Institute) and TVP (Telewizja Polska) in Poland.

     

    Directed by Anuradha and Sumit Osmand Shaw with research by Anuradha herself, the film took the help of historian Dr. Andrzej Krzysztof Kunert, Secretary General of the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites. The Research Coordinators were Kresy-Siberia Foundation and a Balachadi survivor Wieslaw Stypula.

     

    The film contains interviews with several survivors, including two children who met in Balachadi but married 78 years later in Poland.
    The venture was supported by the Embassy of India in Warsaw, the Embassy of Poland in India, and the Polish Institute, New Delhi.

  • DD strengthens its movie library; to screen acclaimed films twice a week

    DD strengthens its movie library; to screen acclaimed films twice a week

    NEW DELHI: The national broadcaster – Doordarshan – is launching a new slot for acclaimed Indian feature films in all languages that have either won national or international honours, featured in the Indian Panorama, or been part of competition sections of 16 renowned international film festivals.

     

    The films will be screened on Sunday and Monday nights at 11:00 pm from the coming weekend and will be subtitled in English. With revenue earnings of Rs 15 lakh per screening and holding the rights for three years; the pubcaster clarified that the rights were not exclusive.

     

    In the event of a film being offered for a premiere on DD, the amount to be paid will go up to Rs 25 lakh.

     

    Doordarshan Director General Tripurari Sharan told indiantelevision.com that the ‘Best of Indian Cinema’ initiative was part of the celebrations on the centenary of Indian cinema.

     

    Answering a question, he said a similar slot for such films in the eighties and early nineties had fizzled out for various reasons including the fact that the prime time was restricted to around 9:00 pm and viewers generally did not watch television after that. But the entry of the private channels had changed the scenario.

     

    He claimed that DD was the only channel showing such films. However, Lok Sabha TV also has a similar slot on Sundays, though the window for the kind of films it will take is not as large as the one DD is embarking upon.

     

    Sharan clarified that as most films had a U/A certification, they could not be shown before 11:00 pm.

     

    Initially, DD had decided to keep this slot for one year with a total of 104 films. He added that DD had decided to have a cut-off date, and so the slot will only screen films made post the year 2000.

     

    Sharan said that there was need to support these films as they are meant for niche audiences.

     

    However, this slot will mean that the popular Bioscope slot in which meaningful films are shown in three parts from Monday to Wednesday at 11:00 pm will now be curtailed to Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

     

    Answering questions at an informal press meet, he said that other time slots could be considered for these films in the event of viewers demand. Furthermore, DD could also consider increasing the frequency of the screening of such films from twice a week to more days. Referring to Sunday afternoons, he added that the slot was already reserved for retrospectives of eminent film personalities.

     

    On the marketing front, there are already print advertisements that would begin appearing from this weekend, e-flyers to several thousand persons on the list of DD, and social media like Facebook.

     

    The first four films in this slot are the Malayalam movie Nizhalkkuthu by the famed Adoor Gopalakrishnan on 10 November, the Marathi drama Deeol by Umesh Kulkarni on 11 November, the Konkani film Digant by Dyanesh Moghe on 17 November, and the Bangla Nisshabd by Jahar Kanungo on 18 November.

  • Six ATN channels launch on Canada’s Bell Fibe TV

    Six ATN channels launch on Canada’s Bell Fibe TV

    MUMBAI: Asian Television Network (ATN) International has launched six new channels on Bell Fibe TV, an IP based TV service offered by Bell Canada. Four of them are in collaboration with India’s public service and largest terrestrial broadcaster Doordarshan and the other two with SAB TV Network.

    The channels are GEC ATN-DD India, news channel ATN-DD News, cultural and lifestyle channel ATN DD Bharati, Urdu GEC ATN-DD Urdu, comedy channel ATN – Dhammal and music channel ATN- Mastiii. “We have aggressive plans to add substantial value to our Diaspora and enhance our strong Customer base on a Consumer oriented Pick and Pay Model across Canada,” says ATN CEO and president Shan Chandrasekar.

     

    Earlier this year, ATN collaborated with DD to launch five channels in Canada earlier this year. It had said that it wanted to expand its base through cable, satellite and IPTV platforms across Canada. ATN has 44 channels to its list.

    Bell Fibe TV was launched three years ago and it is expected to be available to about five million households by 2015.

    ATN caters to the Indian population in Canada. It is also a major distributor of cricket programming in the country.

  • DD to telecast live launch of Mangalyaan Mission from Sriharikota

    DD to telecast live launch of Mangalyaan Mission from Sriharikota

    NEW DELHI: Doordarshan will telecast live the launch of the India’s Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) – which will conduct a detailed study of the Martian atmosphere and is the nation’s first ever mission to the Red Planet.

     

    The telecast PSLV – C25/Mars Orbiter Mission will be telecast live on DD National from 1410 hrs from Sriharikota today afternoon. Prior to that, there will be a ten-minute curtain-raiser on the mission.

     

    The countdown commenced on 3 November in the morning at 6.06 hrs, according to an official statement from the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO).

     

    India would become only the fourth nation or entity from Earth to survey Mars up close with spacecraft, following the Soviet Union, the United States and the European Space Agency (ESA). Past attempts to reach the Red Planet from both China and Japan have failed.

     

    MOM is the first of two new Mars orbiter science probes from Earth set to blast off for the Red Planet this November. Half a globe away, NASA’s MAVEN orbiter remains on target to launch barely two weeks after MOM on 18 November from the Florida Space Coast.

     

    MOM is on schedule to lift off atop the powerful, extended XL version of India’s highly reliable four stage Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C25).

     

    The 44 meter (144 ft) PSLV will launch MOM into an initially elliptical Earth parking orbit of 248 km x 23,500 km. A series of six orbit raising burns will eventually dispatch MOM on a trajectory to Mars around 1 December.

     

    Following a 300 day interplanetary cruise phase, the do or die Mars orbital insertion engine will fire on 21 September 2014 and place MOM into an 366 km x 80,000 km elliptical orbit.

     

    MOM arrives about the same time as NASA’s MAVEN orbiter. They will significantly bolster Earth’s armada of five operational orbiters and surface rovers currently investigating the Red Planet.

     

    MAVEN and MOM will “work together” to help solve the mysteries of Mars atmosphere, the Chief Bruce Jakosky of MAVEN told Universe Today. Although there are no NASA instruments on board MOM, NASA is providing key communications and navigation support to ISRO and MOM through the agency’s trio of huge tracking antennas in the Deep Space Network (DSN).

     

    The $ 69 million 1,350 kilogram MOM orbiter, also known as ‘Mangalyaan’, is the brainchild of ISRO.

     

    ‘Mangalyaan’ is outfitted with an array of five indigenous science instruments including a multi colour imager and a methane gas sniffer to study the Red Planet’s atmosphere, morphology, mineralogy and surface features. Methane on Earth originates from both biological and geological sources.