The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) has effected some changes in the rules relating to carriage of pubcaster Doordarshan TV channels on a mandatory basis by the distribution platforms in India.

In an advisory, posted on the Ministry’s website Wednesday, MIB said some of the regional TV channels were being mandated to be carried by distribution platforms of the region which the channel pertains to. For example, DD Himachal would have to be compulsorily carried by platforms providing service in the northern State of Himachal Pradesh.

Apart from this, the government has also stated that DD Retro, a GEC, would have to be carried by all distribution platforms across India.

“The channels from serial numbers 29 to 39 shall be mandatorily carried only by those Cable Operators whose services are limited to the State to which such regional channels pertain to,” the advisory said.

The 11 DD channels in the aforementioned category are all GECs and include DD Himachal, DD Uttrakhand, DD Chhattisgarh, DD Jharkhand, DD Haryana, DD Goa, DD Manipur, DD Tripura, DD Nagaland, DD Meghalaya and DD Mizoram.

Under sub-section (l) of section 8 of the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995, which is amended from time to time, the Indian government has notified 25 Doordarshan channels and the HD and SD versions of Sansad TV (Parliament TV) are to be mandatorily carried by all registered MSOs, cable operators and DTH platforms on their respective networks.

Meanwhile, earlier in March, DD’s parent Prasar Bharati had floated a tender to engage an agency to monitor and analyse the carriage of must-carry DD channles on distribution networks.

“Prasar Bharati intends to engage an agency for Monitoring, Analyzing & Reporting of Doordarshan’s must carry channels…(and) whether Doordarshan channels are being carried and available on distribution networks of all DPOs throughout the country in rural as well as urban areas. The agency will submit area-wise detailed analysed report of DD Channels to Prasar Bharati,” the tender document had stated outlining the scope of work.

The broad objectives of the exercise were the following:

1. a)  Evaluate the extent of penetration for DD’s must carry channels along with all other DD channels in rural India.
2. b)  Evaluate the extent of penetration for DD’s must carry channels along with all other DD Channels in urban parts of India.
3. c)  Identify the hindrances of reach of DD channels to the viewers, if any.
4. d)  Suggest feasible measures to overcome the hindrance in the reach of DD channels to enhance their penetration in both rural and urban India.
5. e) Analysis of at least 08 (eight) nearest neighbourhood TV channels above and 08 nearest neighbourhood channels below the DD channels (wherever applicable), to assess the probable placement of the pubcaster’s channel for optimum viewership in rural and urban areas.

On Tuesday, March 31, MIB announced a decision to put the output feed of MSOs and cable operators under scanner by having them monitored, though the reason behind such a move is still not clear, including whether this monitoring would also include analysis of carriage of DD channels under must-carry mandate.

“ln order to ensure adherence to the provisions of Cable Television Networks (Regulation)Act, 1995 and Rules made thereunder, it has been decided to monitor output feed of cable operators through a monitoring device,” the advisory from the MIB stated Tuesday, adding the devices would be installed at headends of the distribution platforms by Broadcast Engineering Consultants India Ltd (Becil), an unit under the Ministry.