Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Cuttack, Apr 5:

In a move to attract the younger generation back into its fold, public broadcaster Doordarshan has started a free TV service for smartphone users in Odisha’s Cuttack among 15 other cities across India.

Doordarshan

The cities are Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Cuttack, Guwahati, Patna, Ranchi, Lucknow, Jalandhar, Raipur, Indore, Aurangabad, Bhopal, Bangalore and Ahmedabad.

In a statement issued in New Delhi, Doordarshan said that its ‘Digital Terrestrial Television’ services -- that facilitates mobile TV to the users -- have started operation from February 25 in the said cities.

“Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) secures greater plurality in platform ownership, ensuring that no single platform owner is so powerful that they can exert undue influence on public opinion or political agendas,” said the statement.

“Mobile TV can be received in and around these cities using DVB-T2 dongles in OTG enabled smartphones and tablets, Wi-Fi dongles for moving vehicles, besides the TV sets having built-in DVB-T2 tuner which are called Integrated Digital TV (iDTV). While iDTV are available in Sony, LG, Panasonic, Samsung etc, the dongles are also available on online shopping sites like Flipkart, eBay, Snapdeal etc,” it added.

The statement further explained that the users won’t have to pay any charges for watching the DD channels. Users are only required to download an app and plug-in the dongles in their smartphones to receive DD signal.

To make the deal even sweeter, the technology is not internet dependent for the TV to work after installation of the app.

As of now, the public sector broadcaster is offering channels such as DD National, DD News, DD Bharati, DD Sports, DD Kisan and regional channels of Doordarshan.

Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) secures greater plurality in platform ownership, ensuring that no single platform owner is so powerful that they can exert undue influence on public opinion or political agendas, the statement said.