Question : DTH Service

(a) whether Doordarshan has taken measures to popularize its free ‘Direct-to Home’ service, if so, the details thereof along with the outcomes achieved in this regard;
(b) whether ‘Direct-to-Home’ service of Doordarshan is not quite as popular as private ‘Direct-to-Home’ services mainly due to unavailability of standard equipment and the absence of recognised professionals for setting up of ‘Direct-to-Home’ services;
(c) if so, the details thereof along with the remedial measures taken/being taken by the Government in this regard; and
(d) whether the Government is considering to formulate new licensing norms for DTH players and if so, the time by which the new norms would be put in place?

THE MINISTER OF ENVIRONMENT, FOREST AND CLIMATE CHANGE; AND MINISTER OF INFORMATION AND BROADCASTING (SHRI PRAKASH JAVADEKAR)
(a) Doordarshan has taken several steps to popularize DD Free Dish. As per the policy guidelines introduced for allotment of slots of DD FreeDish Platform to private satellite TV channels in January 2019, all genres such as General Entertainment, Movies, Music, Sports, News and Current Affairs, Devotional and Regional etc. are given fair opportunities to be placed on DD Free Dish Platform. Low entry barrier for Spiritual/yoga/aayush channels on DD FreeDish has also been introduced.


DD FreeDish has a rich and vibrant bouquet of Doordarshan and private channels so that more and more number of people have an access to affordable and quality information comprising of 94 SD TV channels including 57 private channels and 37 radio channels. To empower people in remote, hilly, border and tribal areas Doordarshan has also distributed free DD Free Dish Set Top Boxes from time to time. Recently 30000 DTH sets were distributed in border areas of J & K.
Publicity of DD FreeDish has been undertaken through Doordarshan channels, AIR stations and Bill Boards etc. Doordarshan has taken advantage of high viewership events, such as Cricket World Cup 2019, IPL 2018 and FIFA U17 in 2017 to conduct roadshows and special discussion programs to create awareness about DD Free Dish within consumers.





(b)& (c) DD FreeDish is quite popular as it is evident from the Performance Indicator Report of quarter ending March, 2019 which pointed out that there are 72 Million subscribers of 5 private DTH operators, compared to more than 30 Million subscribers of DD FreeDish estimated by KPMG in its report of 2018. State of the art professional uplinking facility is available for DD FreeDish.

(d) Formulation of new policy norms for DTH is an elaborate exercise. Consultations/deliberations with the stake holders have been held to discuss various issues involved.
******