Digital Broadcasters | Doordarshan Up Up and Away in UK

Digital Broadcasters Vendors News notes that after years of indecision, India's state TV, Doordarshan is up, up and away in UK's satellite land using DVB. From London on April 16 DD launches a general channel, DD India and 24/7, DD News. Both are free - to - air, part of the Sky UK satellite TV mux in Hindi and both are transmitted on the Eurobird satellite positioned at 28.5 degrees East. This gives a satellite footprint of 95 per cent of Europe, let alone the UK. Backers of the channels are the London based, Rayat Television Enterprises Ltd. The Rayat Group has interests in retail, air travel and technology. It has invested £2 million in the 5 year project, (with a first refusal option for a further 5 years). Much of the expenditure includes advance royalty payments (10 million Rupees) to Doordarshan and set up costs. Khalid Mahmood, Rayat Group CEO said the channels will connect British Indians with their roots and set standards in ethnic broadcasting. An anonymous executive within Doordarshan said it had taken 48 years for Doordarshan to make the decision to have a UK operation. India state TV's late arrival in the European satellite TV broadcasting scene sees it coming up against established competition from UK, Indian Pakistani and Bangla channels. These include from Zee, STAR, Sony, NDTV and local Asian channels, MATV and Raj. They all TV target the same audience with some emphasising younger values and others the more older traditions. Line up of UK channels directed at Indian, Pakistani, Nepali (Galaxy TV on Hotbird 6) and Bangladesh viewers on FTA EuroBird 28.5E with main languages used: Urdu (Pakistan) Channels: PrimeTV: 11623 Urdu Punjabi PTV Global: 11224 Urdu GeoTV: 11343 Urdu ARYOneWorld: 11343 Urdu The Musik: 11343 Urdu DM Digital: 11261 urdu Bangla Channels: Bangla TV: 11344 Bengali ATN Bangla: 11488 Bengali NTV Channel S: 11488 Bengali Channel S UK: 11488 Bengali English Language/Mixed Channel S UK: 11488 English RajTV: 11428 English/Hindi MATV: 11389 English/Mixed Hindi Channels DD India: 11426 Hindi (20 per cent English, some Gujarati and Tamil) DD News: 11527 Hindi mainly (20 per cent English, some Gujarati and Tamil) Star One: 11262 Hindi mainly DD India UK and DD News UK carry their own logos on the TV screen along with that of Rayat TV. Researching this article, Digital Broadcasters Vendor News found that Doordarshan, has over 1.4 billion viewers worldwide.