India Invests in Digital TV

India’s public broadcaster Doordarshan will receive a massive investment to enable it to convert to digital production and transmission reports Rapid TV News.
The information attributed to BBC Monitoring reports that India’s Information and Broadcasting Ministry has prepared a proposal for an Rs8 billion (US$174 million) investment for All India Radio and Rs6 billion to Doordarshan for completing digitisation. This will be shortly placed before the Cabinet, according to a senior government official.
Digitisation is targeted for completion by 2017 and Doordarshan have already allocated Rs12.09 billion out of a total approved outlay of Rs13.69 billion just for digitisation in the 11th Five Year Plan (2007-2012).
The government plans to use 40 locations where analogue High Power Transmitters are operational for setting up of digital-terrestrial transmitters in the country. Fourteen obsolete High Power TV transmitters (UPTs) and 60 Lower Power TV transmitters (LPTs) will be replaced. Satellite Earth Stations will also be modernized using Digital Satellite News Gathering (DSNG) in the new Plan.
India adopted the DVB-T standard for digital terrestrial broadcasting in 1999.
Source: Rapid TV News
Item added: 25th January 2010