BizXtraZ!

SOON, YOU CAN WATCH
DOORDARSHAN ON YOUR
SMARTPHONE!!!


Viewers in 10 cities across the country including the four
metros will soon be able to watch Doordarshan and
nineteen other channels offered
by Prasar Bharati on their smartphone, tablet or laptop for
free.
Officials said that the national broadcaster has charted out an
aggressive plan to expand the range of its mobile TV services to at least 40 major cities and the
services are likely to start in the first ten cities before the end of year 2013.
"Prasar Bharati has in the past also experimented with Mobile TV service and in 2007 a pilot
project had been set up in Delhi.
However the technology used at
that time only allowed signals to
be transmitted in a radius of ten kilometre.
"The technology that will be used now would be Digital Video Broadcast - terrestrial (DVB-T2)
which can take high quality signals in a radius of 90
kilometres," an official source said.
Prasar Bharati officials hoped that the launch of the advanced mobile TV services would give
them a strong grip over a new segment of market - the smart
phone owning next generation-whose numbers which are
substantial even now are growing at a very fast pace.
Officials also said that presently watching television or video clips on mobile is not very convenient
as buffering takes up a long time.
"One of the biggest advantages this service would offer is that there would be no buffering and
the clarity would be high definition. It would be like
watching normal high definition TV on the move," the official said.
Sources said while the technical aspects of the mobile TV project
are being looked by the engineering wing of the Doordarshan, a separate team of
officials was examining what kind of content the national broadcaster would put out on
the Mobile TV channels.
"While the content produced by Doordarshan would be the mainstay, we are also open to
the option of private television channels using this platform and showcasing their content," a
senior official said.
While Prasar Bharati considers its plan to launch mobile TV in major cities a 'next generation' measure, it was the first mover in this segment after having launched a pilot project in May
2007 with a bouquet of 8 TV channels in the capital.
The transmitter for the project was installed in Akashwani Bhawan, Parliament Street and
the signal could be received on DVB-H enabled mobile phones within a range of about 10 Kms from the transmitter location.
The Public broadcaster had then
increased the number of TV channels offered in the bouquet from 8 to 16.