Doordarshan to be Digitalised: Soni

New Delhi, Dec 8 – With barely a year to go for the Commonwealth Games, the government Tuesday said it had allocated Rs.1,209 crore for digitalisation of Doordarshan and also had plans to establish two studios to facilitate High Definition TV (HDTV) broadcasting.

The Rs.1,209 crore ($240 million) was set aside from an outlay of Rs.1,369 crore approved for new schemes in the Eleventh Plan (2007-12), Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.

Soni listed a number of steps taken by the government for modernisation of Doordarshan, including digitalisation of existing studios, establishment of digital transmitters, replacement and augmentation of old studios, transmitter and satellite broadcast equipment and setting up of HDTV facilities.

Out of 66 DD studio centres across the country, Soni said 23 centres were either already digitalised or being digitalised. ‘Thirty-nine studio centres, which are partially digitalised or analog are planned to be fully digitalised in the 11th Plan. The remaining four studios, which are analog, are proposed to be digitalised in the 12th Plan,’ she added.

The government plans to establish two HDTV studios in Delhi and Mumbai, field production and post production facilities in four metros, HDTV uplink at Delhi apart from HDTV terrestrial transmitters in four metros.

HDTV broadcasting transmission provides pictures with a resolution four or five times higher than the existing transmission.