NEW DELHI: Sticking to its promise of ensuring that Doordarshan channels are made available across all cable and DTH platforms, Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Minister Prakash Javadekar has taken the positive step.

Reiterating that it is mandatory to carry 24 channels of Doordarshan in digital addressable system areas and eight channels in non-DAS areas, the Government today also stressed that it was necessary that all multi-system operators (MSOs) and cable operators to take only C-band signals of Doordarshan channels.  

In the advisory, the I&B Ministry said that the mandatory carriage had been notified in September 2013.

However, some MSOs were taking the DD beam from the Ku-band of DD’s DTH service, resulting in inferior quality of transmission of DD channels. Furthermore, some MSOs were not even carrying the mandatory channels, according to Prasar Bharati.

In this context, the Ministry said Para 3 of the 5 September 2013 notification was clear that only C-band signals had to be taken ‘for retransmission by dish antenna/television Receive of not less than 12 feet diameter, and Yagi antenna, to ensure good quality reception’.