NEW DELHI: Prasar Bharati is in favour of converting some of Doordarshan’s regional channels in the Hindi belt into round-the-clock cable and satellite channels.

These include Chandigarh, Dehradun, Shimla, Ranchi, Hussar, Raipur, and Jammu regional channels. At present, some of these channels are put on the terrestrial network for around four hours when DD National goes off the National Network. At such times, Delhi’s Doordarshan Kendra transmits its programmes terrestrially.

Prasar Bharati CEO Jawahar Sircar said at a meeting of the Prasar Bharati Board yesterday that an optimisation committee would study the various aspects related to carrying out of this transition. "The board has given in-principle approval to the scaling up of these channels," an official said.

Sircar said turning them into round-the- clock channels would not require much of additional resources.
 

The Board is also in favour of monetising the excess land available around fifty radio transmitters all over the country that are not being adequately used to generate revenues for Prasar Bharati. (It is understood that the Government has earlier opposed this on the ground that this was public property and also for security reasons.) Prasar Bharati feels this land can be given out to public sector companies or banks as this will not compromise the security aspects.

Speaking at a World Radio Day function organised by the News Services Division of AIR, Sircar had said yesterday that even the Parliamentary Standing Committee had favoured monetisation of this land.

The Board also recommended that Doordarshan towers could be utilised all over the country to carry FM radio transmission to strengthen the FM network.

Earlier Prasar Bharati had turned four Doordarshan channels from part-time to round-the-clock channels in the Hindi heartland states of Bihar, UP, MP and Rajasthan.

Officials said the Board also favoured putting the historical speeches of national leaders in Prasar Bharati's archives on the internet.