DD Direct Plus, which is now FreeDish, is India’s only free to air digital direct-broadcast satellite television. Encouraged by the increasing viewership and reach, Doordarshan is now planning to make a major expansion for FreeDish. Doordarshan will increase the channels available under FreeDish to 112 by March end. Right now, there are 64 channels available for FreeDish users, which includes Aaj Tak and Big Magic, which are otherwise paid channels under private DTH services.

Speculations are rife that some other big names of TV news and entertainment niche may now be included under FreeDish to provide free access for majority of Indians. As per IndianTelevision.com, DD director general C Lalrosanga has recently conducted several meetings to successfully implement this major expansion from the state controlled broadcaster.

Interestingly, viewership of DD News is thrice that of India’s largest English news channel for prime time spot (Monday-Friday, 9 PM to 10 PM). Doordarshan is now attempting to make hardware compatible for all their viewers, so that this expansion actually makes sense.

DD FreeDish (previously DD Direct Plus) was launched in December 2004 and right now, INSAT-4B satellite at 93.5° is used to broadcast 64 FTA MPEG-2 Channels, 48 MPEG-4 channels and 29 radio channels using this platform.

• Speculation means the forming of a theory or conjecture without firm evidence
• Rife means widespread