Chastened by the Election Commission and forced to conduct its new 24-hour news channel under the watchful gaze of political parties not close to the ruling party, Doordarshan’s official website, www.ddindia.net, seems to have missed the point — the launch of the channel itself.The website continues to talk about the now-defunct Metro channel but the new channel gets no mention, leave alone a schedule to mention the channel’s programmes.Tomorrow, when the Prasar Bharati Board meets to take stock, the new channel will perhaps find a mention.Although, the sponsorship rates have been fixed at Rs 10,000 for prime time and Rs 5,000 for non-prime time, officials say the rates had to be fixed low to attract newsmakers interested in producing news for DD. Incidentally, the non-prime time rates are lower than what FM radios are charging.
