DD officials claimed that with the launch of the DTH, it will be able to bring the whole of India under its coverage.

The New Cable TV Regime: Complete Coverage

"The total project cost is estimated at Rs 300 crore (Rs 3 billion). This is an ambitious project for DD where we are promoting DTH concept as a whole rather than promoting mere DD DTH service.

"The focus of DD will remain catering healthy entertainment and information," said A K Gupta, superintending engineer, Doordarshan Kendra, Ahmedabad.

The DTH service will show 30 channels including 16 channels from the DD bouquet including DD Bharti, DD India, DD News, DD Sports, DD National, Gyan Darshan and other vernacular channels in Gujarati, Punjabi, Oriya and Malayalam. The rest will be private channels including four free channels of Zee Television.

DD has installed 1,150 DTH sets in peripheral areas of Gujarat where DD has a poor coverage. A DTH set offered by DD includes a dish, set-top box and LNBF (low noise blockdown feedhorn) gadget.

DTH sets have been installed in panchayat buildings, government schools, physical health centres and milk co-operative societies. These centres include mostly small villages with a population of around 1,000-2,000 in the border area.

The DTH system offered by DD under the 'Apna DTH' programme has been developed by the Gandhinagar-based Modern Communication and Broadcast Systems.

The system is equiped to catch the audio broadcasting signals of 20 radio channels including All India Radio.

DD plans to add more channels to its offering and is in talks with various channels such as Aj Tak, Kairali, Star Utsav, Jain TV and Headlines Today.