Private television channels have to pay a fee to Prasar Bharati for the use of the corporation's DTH (direct-to-home) platform from January 2006. By then there should be about 55 television channels and 30 radio channels on the DTH platform. Presently it has 33 television and 12 radio channels. Doordarshan's Urdu channel, which is to start on January 1, will also be available on the DTH platform.

At present the private channels were using the DTH platform free of cost. It costs Prasar Bharati Rs 1 crore per channel every year to host the channels. Prasar Bharati is digitizing the archival content of both AIR and Doordarshan and will bring them into the public domain. Prasar Bharati has generated revenue of Rs 500 crore during the first five months of this year. This has mainly come from using AIR's resources to help private broadcasters set up radio stations.