MUMBAI: Public broadcaster Prasar Bharati, during its 154th board meeting, gave Doordarshan a major shot in the arm as it approved, in principle, significant investment in new and quality content during the year 2019-2020. The meeting was chaired by Prasar Bharati chairman A. Surya Prakash in the presence of the CEO Shashi Shekhar Vempati and member Rajeev Singh.

According to Vempati, the plan for new content on Doordarshan will be finalized in the next few days. This infusion of fresh content by Doordarshan should fill the vacuum from the exit of several GEC channels from the free-to-air (FTA) space in general and from DD Free Dish in particular, Vempati hopes.

While BARC India has not been making its viewership data public in recent weeks, the importance of DD Free Dish as a platform has become abundantly clear going by the measurement since 1 March. This underscores the opportunity for Doordarshan to regain its space in GEC genre, Vempati added.

Post the implementation of TRAI tariff order, several major broadcasters like ZEE and Star India have converted their FTA channels into pay and taken off popular channels from Doordarshan's FTA DTH platform Free Dish.

The planned investment in new content on Doordarshan will be targeted towards capturing this opportunity, Vempati stated.