NEW DELHI: The Information and Broadcasting Ministry has decided to make changes in the foreign direct investment (FDI) policy to aid the process of digitisation.
In its Strategy Plan of the Information and Broadcasting Ministry 2011-17, the Ministry noted that it will make appropriate policy formulations to increase FDI in order to meet the expenditure on digitalisation.
It will also work with the Finance Ministry for devising incentives for digitalisation such as reduction of custom duties and tax holiday on digital equipment.
In the report, the Ministry noted that out of the 106 million Cable and Satellite homes in the country, 26 million are DTH and 80 million are cable homes. Thus 74 per cent of TV subscribers in India are depending on cable networks for entertainment. Since cable networks have limited carriage capacity of channels, it is imperative that the cable sector be entirely digitalised as number of channels is growing at a rapid pace.
Meanwhile, for Doordarshan, the Strategy Plan says the telecaster plans to produce 15,067 episodes for various channels in the next three years. Of this, 12,400 episodes will be made in-house and 2,667 episodes commissioned through outside producers. DD will develop and improve content delivery to the rest of the world on essentially four channels, DD News, DD Sports, DD Bharati and DD India.
Doordarshan is presently operating 35 satellite channels and has a network of 66 studios and 1415 transmitters providing TV coverage to about 92 per cent population of the country.
The Government has also decided to formulate policy guidelines for provision of Mobile TV services in India as mobile screen is becoming the fourth screen to the consumers after cinema, TV and computers across the world.
The ministry believes that the mobile "is the best platform for delivering the benefits of television and mobile communications in one device."
The ministry believes that mobile "is the best platform for delivering the benefits of television and mobile communications in one device."
