NEW DELHI: In an effort to reach its target of 97 channels by the end of this year, Prasar Bharati is auctioning six slots on its free-to-air direct-to-home platform DD Direct Plus by e-auction.

A Bangalore based private firm - Synise Technologies - has been chosen to conduct the e-auction which commenced yesterday.

It is also learnt that Prasar Bharati is considering carrying out a change in its policy to try and get the best of channels on its DTH service.

Currently, Doordarshan‘s DTH platform offers 59 channels of which 30 are private, 21 of DD, Lok Sabha TV, Rajya Sabha TV and two channels run by the UGC.

Four foreign channels - NHK, ABC, France 24 and Russia Sunday - complete the bouquet of channels on the DTH wing.

"The capacity to carry channels on our DTH wing is set to increase significantly as Doordarshan is planning to buy equipment that will allow it to utilise an additional transponder on satellite INSAT 4B," a DD official told indiantelevision.com.

Prasar Bharati CEO Jawhar Sircar has earlier said another aspect that the broadcaster is considering is how it can get better quality channels on its DTH wing. "We are considering framing a policy by next year which will allow the best of channels to be shown on our DTH platform," Sircar said.

There was a need to consider a new policy which would be transparent but also to ensure that the best of channels prefer to come to the Doordarshan platform so that they can be shown to viewers all across the country, he said.