As the Rs 500-crore aam aadmi’s Direct-to-Home (DTH) awaits formal inauguration by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the Prasar Bharati Corporation is wooing foreign and local channels to join its platform.And Al Jazeera is likely to come up for discussion as the board meets in Bangalore on November 29, after setting and missing three tentative dates for a formal launch.The Dubai-based Al Jazeera, it is learnt, is working on an English news channel and has shown its willingness to join the Government’s DTH. Besides, a channel from the BBC stable and the CNN are being wooed, with the channels paying a carriage fee to the public service broadcaster.These will be in addition to Sahara, Sun, Aaj Tak, Jaya and educational channel Eklavya which have already gone aboard. The Government DTH, for its its first phase, has provisions for 30 channels with 17 coming from DD and the remaining 13 coming from private players. The tally is likely to go up to 50 in the second phase.DTH comes free with the subscriber paying up to Rs 3,500 for a set-top box. Subscribers get the channels for free unlike private initiated moves which charge per channel viewed — exactly the pitch that the Prasar Bharati Corporation is making to woo its target audience.The Government had floated the idea of DTH to counter the criticism over CAS last year. As consumers complained of having to pay for viewing channels, a free DTH with one-time payment was touted as the answer to consumer problems.Till date, there is only one DTH player — Zee. Star’s DTH (with a joint venture with the Tatas) hangs in balance as the Government takes its time to clear the proposal.
