Doordarshan to launch two 24-hour channels in Britain from April 16

London, April 01, 2007
Surjit Malhotra

The Indian state-owned television network Doordarshan to launch two channels on the United Kingdom’s Sky satellite platform starting from April 16, 2007. It would bring:

• "the essence of India to Great Britain".
• Mixture of content including music, children’s programs, sports, travel, documentaries and current affairs
• Will mostly broadcast in Hindi with 20% of their content in English.
• Very soon, it will do further expansion into Europe
• DD News will compete with established names such as Zee News, Star News

The Rayat Group, the private company will control the channels' distribution system and broadcast 24 hours a day. Inari Sharma, marketing manager for Rayat TV said, "Doordarshan will provide the most innovative and rich content and bring the essence of India to Great Britain. With the largest library of sub continental programming in the world, we will be able to offer a unique blend of content that until now has not been available to viewers in the UK."

Vectone and local UK based Raj TV channel will be in trouble and already have struggled to make any progress.  

Doordarshan:

• Established in 1959
• Viewers: it has more than 1.4 billion viewers worldwide.
• world's largest studio systems, with 59 program production centers
• Generating 1,700 program hours per week for 27 channels distributed by more than 1,400 transmitters.