Prasar Bharati sources said that work has started at Mandi House on the launch of the new channels -- DD International, DD Movies, and DD Prime. Prasar Bharati is also revamping DD Metro to make it a dedicated entertainment channel.

Prasar Bharati would also put greater effort in upgrading the recently-launched DD Sports. The sources said that the feeling is Doordarshan has not really used its reach as a selling point to take on the satellite sports channels.

The Prasar Bharati top brass feels that DD needs more live events for the purpose. The sources added that DD will initiate direct dialogues with event organisers for possible tie-ups.

Key officials say DD's tie-ups with event organisers have run into a mess and major efforts would be made to restore them so that DD can leverage its reach towin telecasting rights of major sporting events such as Wimbledon.DD's terrestrial reach is 65 million homes, compared with 20 million cable homes. If the Government decides to promulgate an ordinance to amend the Cable Networks Amendment Act, it will be mandatory for cable operators to carry DD-I and DD-II on the prime band as satellite channels.

A major drive is also expected on DD's programming front. Sources said Prasar Bharati will re-work the positioning of the programmes and evaluate them more strictly on their revenue-generating capacity. Further, with the proposed improvement in transmission quality, the top management feels that DD will be in a position to bag greater number of quality programmes, enhancing the number of advertisement as well as programmes in the sponsored category.