NEW DELHI: The reach of the international channel of Doordarshan - DD India - has fallen to less than half following the shifting of the transmission from Intelsat to Insat 4B satellite.

While the channel was reaching 86 countries through Intelsat, it is currently reaching just 38 countries.

The contract with the Intelsat Corporation of the United States expired on 5 March this year. DD had been paying around Rs 80 million per year to Intelsat for the transmission.

A provision of Rs 1 billion has been set aside in the 12th Five Year Plan to improve the content on DD India with a change in its fixed point chart.

This will mean more programmes on travelogue, medical tourism, Daily Bollywood news, educational programmes, gems and jewellery, India‘s cuisine and fashion programmes, apart from efforts to increase the frequency of Indian feature films including popular blockbuster movies.