Amid LAC skirmishes, Prasar Bharti to expand reach in border areas

Aditi Tandon

New Delhi, January 6

Amid sporadic skirmishes with China along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) and the challenge of infiltration from Pakistan into Jammu and Kashmir, public broadcaster Prasar Bharti on Friday said it will expand its reach in the border and strategic areas with the objective to info, educate and entertain the residents.

The expansion of reach of All India Radio and Doordarshan in key segments of national interest, including Left-wing extremist-infested districts will happen with the recent Union Cabinet approval for a Rs 2539.61 crore infrastructure augmentation scheme for Prasar Bharti.

The Broadcast Infrastructure Network Development Scheme meant for a period of five years until 2025-26 will seek to expand Prasar Bharti and its arm’s reach to habitations across an additional 6 lakh square km of area.

“The target under the BIND scheme is to raise FM coverage in the country from 58.83 pc to 66.29 pc geographically speaking and from 68 pc to 80.23 pc in terms of population reach. The coverage of AIT FM is sought to be increased on the Indo-Nepal border from the existing 48.27 pc to 63.02 pc and along the J&K border from 62 pc to 76 pc,” CEO Prasar Bharti Gaurav Dwivedi said today.

Dwivedi said free distribution of over eight lakh DD Direct to Home receiver sets was also planned for remote, tribal, MWE and border areas under the BIND scheme to enable people to access radio and DD services.

He added that capsules on 1,000 unsung heroes of the national movement were part of Prasar Bharti’s new programming mix under the BIND scheme with 500 already ready and telecast and the rest in the pipeline.

Asked if changes were being planned to the Prasar Bharti programming code, which prevent it from producing a lot of content, Dwivedi said, “There are no such plans at this point of time since the code gives us ample leeway to broadcast the content we want. If the time comes, we will decide accordingly and appropriately.”

Dwivedi added that Prasar Bharti yearly revenues had hovered around Rs 1,400 crore and the public broadcaster would use the BIND scheme to modernise the content and raise reach and revenue both.

DD’s OTT platform being evaluated

Dwivedi said Prasar Bharti was evaluating the proposal for Doordarshan’s OTT platform.