Govt-owned Prasar Bharati Launches Its Own OTT Platform 'WAVES' to Rival Netflix, Jiostar and Amazon Prime

Prasar Bharati, India's national public broadcaster, recently launched its new OTT platform called WAVES. The platform aims to offer a diverse range of content, including classic shows like Ramayan and Mahabharat, contemporary programming, live events, educational content, and more.

Chief Minister of Goa Dr.Pramod Sawant launched ‘WAVES’ the OTT platform of the national public broadcaster, Prasar Bharati at the opening ceremony of 55th International Film Festival of India (IFFI) in Goa, on 20 November 2024. Shri Sanjay Jaju, Secretary I&B, among other dignitaries was also present on the occasion.

Over 65 live channels, movies, interactive games, live events, and even online shopping are available on WAVES. Available in over 12 languages, including Hindi, English, Tamil, Marathi, and Assamese.

‘WAVES’ makes its entry as a large aggregator OTT with Inclusive India stories embracing Indian culture with an international outlook. It will be spread across 10+ Genres of Infotainment. It will provide Video on demand, free-to-play gaming, Radio streaming, Live TV streaming, 65 live Channels, several App in App integrations for video and gaming content, and online shopping through Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) supported e-commerce platform.

WAVES has three tiers subscription plans —Platinum, Diamond, and Gold, with varying features and pricing.

The Prasar Bharati OTT app is Free to download and view content, with subscription fees for premium content.

WAVES cover live events like the US Premier League Cricket Tournament and religious events like Prabhu Shriram Lalla Aarti from Ayodhya.

WAVES aims to provide a rich viewing experience by blending traditional favorites with innovative new content across multiple genres. It's designed to cater to a wide audience, including those in rural areas, through the BharatNet infrastructure. 

Doordarshan's DD Kisan to Launch Two AI Anchors AI Krish and AI Bhoomi Tomorrow

The AI anchors can speak in fifty languages

Doordarshan is going to achieve another milestone as after 9 years of immense success, DD Kisan is coming with a new look and a new style among the farmers of India on 26th May 2024, where the presentation of the channel is going to be in a new avtar.

In this era of 'Artificial Intelligence', Doordarshan Kisan is going to become the first government TV channel of the country, where all eyes are going to be on an AI anchor. Doordarshan Kisan is going to launch two AI anchors — AI Krish and AI Bhoomi. These news anchors are a computer, which are exactly like a human, or rather, these can work like a human. They can read news 24 hours and 365 days without stopping or getting tired.

खेती का नया दौर, किसानों की नई पहचान बदलाव की आंधी, समृद्धि की नई उड़ान #डीडीकिसान हर पल आपका अभिमान।

26 मई को, जश्न मनाएं डीडी किसान का, नए रंग में, बदलेगा भारत का किसान, आओ मिलकर देखें, बदलाव की नई कहानी डीडी किसान के साथ।@AgriGoI @PIBAgriculture @icarindia @Agri_Exports pic.twitter.com/AwwzC64Or0

— Doordarshan Kisan दूरदर्शन किसान (@DDKisanChannel) May 21, 2024

The farmer viewers will be able to see these anchors in all the states of the country from Kashmir to Tamil Nadu and from Gujarat to Arunachal, these AI anchors will provide every necessary information about agricultural research happening in the country and global level, trends in agriculture mandis, changes in the weather or any other information of government schemes. One special thing about these anchors is that they can speak in fifty languages ​​of the country and abroad.

DD Kisan is the only TV channel in the country, which has been established by the Government of India and dedicated to the farmers. This channel was established on 26 May 2015.

The objective of establishing DD Kisan Channel was to always keep the farmers informed about the changes in weather, global and local markets etc., so that farmers can make appropriate plans in advance and take right decisions on time. DD Kisan Channel is meeting these standards for the last 9 years.

DD Kisan channel is also working to bring forward the efforts of progressive farmers to all the people, with the aim of serving the agricultural and rural community in the country and working towards creating an environment of holistic development by educating them.

DD Kisan channel is strengthening the three-dimensional concept of agriculture which includes balanced farming, animal husbandry and plantation.

Earlier in July of last year, an Odisha-based private news channel Odisha TV has launched an AI-generated news anchor named 'Lisa', which is said to be the Odisha state's first Artificial Intelligence (AI) news anchor.

TV Show 'Startup ki Baat' to Air on DD National Every Sunday at 5pm

Within a week after announcing the plan of launching a dedicated TV Channel for Start-ups, government of India has just announced that its own TV show, 'Startup ki Baat', will air on DD National every Sunday at 5 PM, enabling entrepreneurs and startups to share their journey for others to learn from them.

Start-up India has tweeted to make an official announcement -

The premier of our tv show, 'Startup ki Baat', will air on @DDNational on the given channel numbers. Tune in to hear Startups share their entrepreneurial journey every Sunday at 5pm! pic.twitter.com/6cHiaIQWDW

— Startup India (@startupindia) July 13, 2019

It is to be noted that in March 2017, it was reported that the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (formerly DIPP) has given a go-ahead to a government-run show on the lines of the famous American show, Shark Tank where entrepreneurs seeking investments for their businesses pitch their ideas to a panel of potential investors. However, there's hasn't been any update on same since then and it is unclear if 'Startup ki Baat' will be the same show that was talked about in 2017.

Notably, despite the digital media taking front seat from other mediums like print media, the craze for Televesion based shows still persist among end-users. Last August Indian space agency, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), announced to launch a dedicated ISRO TV channel showcasing space applications, developments and science issues, targeting young viewers and people in remote areas in their language.

In September 2014, Jasper Infotech, the holding company of e-commerce firm Snapdeal had formed a joint-venture with Den Netowrks- a Cable distribution firm, to launch a market oriented TV channel. The idea however didn't succeed as Snapdeal was struggling with fresh funding issues in that year.

In 2017 only, TV channel MTV had also lsaunched MTV Dropout Pvt. Ltd., a reality show hosted by Roadies fame Raghu Ram and Rajiv Lakshman and Droom founder Sandeep Aggarwal. The show however went off-air after season only. In its first season Mumbai-based Venture Catalysts, an integrated incubator, had facilitated an investment of Rs. 25 lakhs in the startup idea pitched by ERA, the winning team of the show.

Doordarshan Now Offers Free TV Services For Mobile Phones In India

Decades ago the state-owned Doordarshan was a household name in India. But, with the coming of private channels, the ages-old popular channel slowly starting losing its sheen. The coming of Internet and smartphones only made the situation worse for the channel and people slowly phased it out of their life and gave it a honourable place in the history books. Well, now Doordarshan is back with a bang, as they say it.

Seeing the popularity of smartphones among the masses and losing its audience to it, Doordarshan decided to gear up to use this trend to its advantage and offer free TV service for smartphone users in 16 selected cities in the country.

The service which has already begun from February 25, 2016 is available in Mumbai, Kolkata, Delhi, Jalandhar, Guwahati, Chennai, Lucknow, Ranchi, Patna, Cuttack, Indore, Bhopal, Ahmedabad, Raipur, Bangalore, and Aurangabad.

Doordarshan is making sure that the best of quality is being provided to the viewers without any problems like snowing or ghosting etc. Further, to make the deal all the more attractive to customers, Doordarshan's Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) division is working their best to make the smartphone users receive the free media content without any internet connection. Unfortunately, there's one tiny glitch in the arrangement. In order to directly watch the programs, the viewer requires an integrated Digital Television setup, which only works in a few LG, Sony, Panasonic and Samsung smartphones.

In order to make the free TV service functional in tablets and other OTG-enabled smartphones, DVB-T2 dongles can be used. Further, Wi-Fi enabled dongles come to the rescue when one want to avail the service in moving vehicles.

According to a statement released by DD statement, there will be "no charges for watching the DD channels. Also, no Internet is required after installation of the software." This means, in order to receive the free DD signal, the users are just required to download the software and connect their smartphones to the dongles. Thus, to avail the service, they make only a one-time investment for the purchase of dongle, as after that no money is charged for content streaming. The dongles can be bought from online shopping sites Snapdeal, Flipkart and Ebay.

So, do you think with this move Doordarshan will be able to revive the same place in the hearts of the viewers that it had decades ago? Tell us your views in the comment box below.