Mumbai: Public broadcaster Prasar Bharati has clarified that with the exception of 50 analog terrestrial TV transmitters placed in strategic locations, it will phase out the rest of the obsolete technology by the end of March.

The pubcaster said that till now 70 per cent of all analog transmitters have been phased out and rest are being sunset in a phased manner while ensuring appropriate measures are taken for redeployment and manpower.

The statutory body governing All India Radio and Doordarshan network addressed misinformation put out by certain media outlets that it was planning to shut down its DD Silchar and DD Kalaburagi channels. “Prasar Bharati has made it clear that these DD centres shall continue to generate program content for broadcasting on the satellite channels of Doordarshan dedicated to their respective States, apart from maintaining their presence on digital media via YouTube and on social media. For instance, program content generated by DD Silchar and DD Kalaburagi shall now be broadcast on DD Assam and DD Chandana respectively,” it said in a statement.

“Prasar Bharati has been swiftly phasing out obsolete broadcasting technologies like Analog Terrestrial TV Transmitters, paving way for paradigm shift to emerging technologies and new content opportunities,” it added.

The pubcaster stated that analog terrestrial TV is an obsolete technology and phaseout of the same is in both public interest and national interest as it makes valuable spectrum available for new and emerging technologies such as 5G apart from reducing wasteful expenditure on power.