These 31 DD-channels include 19 television channels and 12 All India Radio channels.

The private channels that were recently disconnected from DD Direct Plus include Aaj Tak, Headlines Today, BBC World, Star Utsav and Akash Bangla, sources said.

"These private channels failed to pay Rs 1 crore (Rs 10 million) in annual carriage fees that Prasar Bharati had demanded for space on DD Direct. That's why they were disconnected," a source in Doordarshan said.

Currently, only ETV-Marathi and TV9 are among the private channels that are available on DD Direct Plus but that too till December since they had paid the carriage fees for 2007, sources added.

In comparison, private DTH companies like Dish TV offers over 180 channels while Tata Sky has over 140 channels.

Private DTH services require consumers to pay a monthly fee plus the cost of acquiring the antenna and the set-top box. DD Direct Plus is a free-to-air service for which there are no monthly fees, while the cost of hardware is much lower than that of the private competitors.

Despite this, while there are 3.6 million subscribers for private DTH services, DD Direct Plus has sold over 800,000 sets and is watched by nearly four million viewers, mostly in remote corners of the country that are outside the reach of cable and satellite services.

Top Doordarshan officials said they were confident of making DD Direct Plus, which was launched on December 16, 2004, a lucrative platform for private television companies.

"We have plans to launch a few movie channels. Film producers will pay us a small fee and also earn from the advertising revenue generated from these channels," a senior Prasar Bharati official said.