DD News
DD News, a 24-hour news channel was launched on 3 November 2003. DD News is the news channel run and operated by the Prasar Bharti division of Doordarshan. Prasar Bharti is an autonomous public service broadcasting organization owned by the Ministry of Information and Broadcast, Government of India.
Called DD Metro in its earlier avatar, the channel is the only satellite cum terrestrial news channel in the country. The channel claims that the terrestrial feed reaches 49% of the country in terms of population, and 25% in terms or area of the country. The channel produces news content in English, Hindi, Urdu, and Sanskrit languages and two news bulletins a day for hearing impaired. DD News has 30 regional news units, spread across the state telecast news of special durations in the regional language.
The channel telecasts general news, sports news, business news and expert discussions. It also telecast special programs on Health, Youth Issues, Cinema, International Events, Arts and Culture, social issues and stock markets and business.
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Ownership Type
Public
Geographic Coverage
National
Content Type
Free to Air / Satellite
Media Companies / Groups
Prasar Bharati
Ownership Structure
DD News is a news channel of Prasar Bharti. Prasar Bharti is a public service broadcaster of the country comes under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting functions are broadly divided into three divisions. The information division of the ministry provides policies and activities of the Government of India through media, print, and digital media. The broadcasting division of the ministry supervises the operation of Prasar Bharti and regulates the content of private channels. The film division of the ministry looks into the certification of the films.
Voting Rights
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Individual Owner
General Information
Founding Year
2003
Affiliated Interests Founder
Doordarshan had its first telecast in the year 1959. However, DD News, in the news channel avatar came into being in 2003. It is founded by Prasar Bharati.
The Prasar Bharati is an autonomous body established under the Prasar Bharati Act of 1997. The company runs the numerous channels of Doordarshan, the public service broadcaster of the country as well DD News, the news channel. Though autonomous in nature, the Company comes directly under the regulation of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India. The website of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India clearly states that - “the Ministry overviews matters relating to All India Radio and Doordarshan through the Prasar Bharati (Broadcasting Corporation of India Act),1990 which includes regulation of the use of All India Radio and Doordarshan by recognised national and regional political parties during elections to the Lok Sabha and State Assemblies” – a not-so-veiled admission that the autonomy is just there in letter, not in spirit.
Affiliated Interests Ceo
is the Chief Executive Officer of Prasar Bharati, the public service broadcaster that owns and operates Doordarshan News or DD News. A B Tech in Chemical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay (IIT-B), Vempati has been a Prasar Bharati Board member prior to his current role. Earlier in his career, he was the Product Strategist and Digital Innovator with Indian IT major Infosys for sixteen years. He has also served as the CEO of news media platform Niticentral.com, which he joined in 2013. He was a key player in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 2014 general election campaign called “Mission 272 +”. He was awarded the Dataquest Pathbreaker Award on behalf of Narendra Modi’s Digital Campaign in 2014 General Elections.
Vempati is also an author and has written books on politics, public policy and technologies like Artificial Intelligence and Broadcast-Broadband Convergence. He is also an owner of patents in real time event management within wireless sensors networks.
Affiliated Interests Editor-In-Chief
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Affiliated Interests other important people
is the Chairman of Prasar Bharati. In a career spanning 47 years, he has held key positions in many media houses and television channels including being the Editor at Zee News, Executive Editor at the Pioneer newspaper, India Editor of Asia Times, Political Editor of Eenadu Group of newspapers, and Chief of Bureau of The Indian Express in New Delhi. In addition, Surya Prakash is a Member of the Executive Council of the Nehru Memorial Museum & Library, Board of Governors, Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) and a member of the Advisory Council of Vivekananda International Foundation, among others. He is also an author with several titles to his credit, including “What Ails Indian Parliament” (1995), “Parliament – Public Money, Private Agenda – The Use and Misuse of MPLADS” (2013), and “The Emergency – Indian Democracy’s Darkest Hour”.
Surya Prakash is a much awarded professional as well. He has been awarded the Sardar Patel Fellowship from the Institute of Policy Studies, Chennai, the Karnataka Rajyotsava Award from the Government of Karnataka, and the Bipin Chandra Sanman for Fearless Journalism.
Contact
Financial Information
Revenue (in Mill. $)
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Operating Profit (in Mill. $)
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Advertising (in % of total funding)
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Market Share
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Further Information
Meta Data
The information is collected from the Prasar Bharti website, the DD News website and the Prasar Bharti annual report. More information, and confirmation of the data collected, were sought from Prasar Bharati via email on 1 May and a courier on 3 May 2019. A response is awaited.
