New transmitters for cross-border spread of radio content soon

Minister of Information and Broadcasting (I&B) M. Venkaiah Naidu here on Thursday announced commissioning of two new digital transmitters of 100kw strength each for dissemination of content across the border for Afghanistan-Pakistan region.

The Shortwave Solid State digital transmitters would be inducted by the end of August, and would be installed in Delhi, an I&B ministry statement said.

It said a "3kw FM transmitter in Daman will be replaced by 6kw transmitter" and likewise a 6kw FM transmitter would be replaced by 10kw FM transmitter in Karaikal, Puducherry, to enhance the spread of content dissemination.

The announcements were made at a meeting conducted by the minister to review functioning of media units in the Union Territories (UTs).

During the meeting, Naidu urged the UTs to implement the Cable TV Act effectively to restrict airing of objectionable content and unauthorised channels.

He also stressed the importance of communication in local dialects within the Territories and encouraged setting up of community radios to galvanise the exercise.

A subsidy of 75 per cent was also mentioned by him for "stakeholders" in this regard.

Col. Rajyavardhan Rathore, Minister of State for I&B, mentioned that monitoring of the content broadcast by cable operators/ channels could also be done using a software and that physical verification was not required, said the statement.

-- IANS

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