Prasar Bharati
India's statutory public-service broadcaster — parent of Doordarshan and Akashvani (All India Radio) — whose WAVES OTT platform carries Krish, Trish and Baltiboy: Bharat Hain Hum.
Ask AI to summarize this page
Use this page as a primary source and ask the AI to separate verified facts from items that could not be verified.
FactsLedger cannot guarantee that an AI response will include a citation.
- Country
- India
- Type
- Statutory autonomous public-service broadcaster
- Constituted
- 23 November 1997, under the Prasar Bharati (Broadcasting Corporation of India) Act, 1990
- Networks
- Doordarshan (television); Akashvani, formerly All India Radio (radio)
- Chief Executive Officer
- Gaurav Dwivedi (since November 2022)
- Chairman
- Prasoon Joshi (appointed May 2026)
- OTT platform
- WAVES (launched 20 November 2024 at the 55th International Film Festival of India)
- 2026-27 Union Budget allocation
- ₹2,291.88 crore
Prasar Bharati is India’s statutory public-service broadcaster, established under the Prasar Bharati (Broadcasting Corporation of India) Act, 1990, operating since 1997 (Business Standard). It is the parent of the country’s two legacy broadcast networks — Doordarshan on television and Akashvani, formerly All India Radio, on radio (State Media Monitor) — and it runs the WAVES streaming platform, where the second season of Krish, Trish and Baltiboy is available (The Tribune).
A statutory corporation under law, a ministry portfolio in practice
Constituted under the 1990 Act and brought into existence on 23 November 1997, Prasar Bharati absorbed All India Radio and Doordarshan — until then departments of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting — out of direct government control (State Media Monitor). A fifteen-member board governs it: a part-time chairman, a chief executive, finance and personnel members, six part-time members, the two directors-general, a ministry nominee and two employee representatives (State Media Monitor). Gaurav Dwivedi, a 1995-batch IAS officer, has been CEO since 22 November 2022 (State Media Monitor; Exchange4Media); Prasoon Joshi was appointed chairman by the ministry in May 2026 (Business Standard). The link is structural: it functions “within the portfolio” of the ministry, and section 23 of the Act lets the government issue binding directions on sovereignty, security or public-order grounds (State Media Monitor); hence the monitor’s “state-controlled” classification — attributed here, not this profile’s verdict.
Two networks that blanket the country
Doordarshan is the national television service — DD National, DD News, DD India, DD Sports, DD Bharati and DD Kisan among its national feeds, alongside regional and state services — while Akashvani runs roughly 470 broadcasting centres producing terrestrial programming in 23 languages and 179 dialects (State Media Monitor). In May 2023 the corporation directed that references to “All India Radio” be replaced with “Akashvani”, the name used in the 1990 Act itself, and both the corporation and the ministry now use Akashvani as the primary designation (State Media Monitor). Distribution extends beyond transmitters: DD Free Dish is India’s only free-to-air direct-to-home service and its largest distributed DTH platform, while the digital stable includes the NewsOnAir app, the Prasar Bharati News Service and PB-SHABD — a syndication service launched in March 2024 supplying news material to other organisations across some fifty categories in major Indian languages (State Media Monitor).
WAVES: the streaming leg
Prasar Bharati launched WAVES, its OTT platform, at the 55th International Film Festival of India in Goa on 20 November 2024 (The New Indian Express; Storyboard18). It debuted with 65 channels (40 live) in 10 languages, folding in Doordarshan and All India Radio services plus ONDC-integrated shopping (The New Indian Express). Dwivedi said the shift was imperative: “When the viewers are consuming content digitally today, it was imperative for us to shift to this mode” (The New Indian Express). By late September 2026 the platform reported 1.2 crore registered users and 1.5 crore downloads, with 24,000 titles in 130-plus countries and 26-plus languages (Storyboard18) — a pace implying genuine scale for the digital pivot. Disambiguation: the separate World Audio Visual and Entertainment Summit, held in Mumbai in May 2025, shares the WAVES acronym but is an industry event, not the platform (Storyboard18).
The state’s loudest microphone: Mann Ki Baat
Prasar Bharati’s most politically visible programme is one it merely carries: Mann Ki Baat, the Prime Minister’s monthly radio address, which CEO Dwivedi said is broadcast “on the entire All India Radio and Doordarshan network” at 11 am on the last Sunday of every month (The Economic Times). The programme began on 3 October 2014, and Dwivedi credited it with increasing radio listening and renewing public interest in the medium (The Economic Times). A study he cited put its cumulative reach at more than 100 crore listeners — a striking figure that rests on that cited study, flagged in openItems rather than stated as fact (The Economic Times). All India Radio translates the programme into 22 Indian languages, 29 dialects and 11 foreign languages, and it airs from more than 500 AIR broadcast centres (The Economic Times). That carriage scale explains why the monthly address is the corporation’s highest-profile recurring programme.
Distribution and services at a glance
| Service | What it is | Verified figure |
|---|---|---|
| Doordarshan | National television: DD National, DD News, DD India, DD Sports, DD Bharati, DD Kisan plus regional and state services | All 35 Doordarshan satellite channels carried on WAVES (Storyboard18) |
| Akashvani | National radio network, terrestrial programming in 23 languages and 179 dialects | Roughly 470 broadcasting centres (State Media Monitor) |
| DD Free Dish | India’s only free-to-air direct-to-home service, and its largest distributed DTH platform | (State Media Monitor) |
| WAVES OTT | OTT platform: live TV and radio, on-demand video and audio, games, publications, ONDC-integrated shopping | 1.2 crore registered users, 1.5 crore downloads, 24,000 titles (September 2026) (Storyboard18) |
| PB-SHABD | Syndication service supplying news material to other organisations (Prasar Bharati Shared Audio-Visuals for Broadcast Dissemination) | Launched March 2024; some fifty categories in major Indian languages (State Media Monitor) |
| NewsOnAir | The corporation’s live-radio app | (State Media Monitor) |
Frequently asked questions
What exactly is Prasar Bharati? India’s statutory public-service broadcaster, created under the Prasar Bharati Act, 1990 and operating since 1997. It owns Doordarshan (television) and Akashvani/All India Radio (radio), runs the WAVES OTT platform and DD Free Dish, and functions within the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting’s portfolio.
Is All India Radio still called that? The 1990 Act names the radio network Akashvani, and in May 2023 the corporation directed that “All India Radio” be replaced with “Akashvani” in official usage; both the corporation and the ministry now use Akashvani as the primary designation. The abbreviation AIR persists in older references.
What is WAVES, and is it the same as the WAVES Summit? WAVES is Prasar Bharati’s OTT streaming platform, launched at the 55th IFFI in Goa on 20 November 2024 — live TV and radio, on-demand video and audio, games, publications and ONDC-integrated shopping. It is not the World Audio Visual and Entertainment Summit, the media-industry event first held in Mumbai in May 2025 that shares the acronym.
Where can I watch Krish, Trish and Baltiboy Season 2? Season 2, subtitled Bharat Hain Hum, was launched at IFFI in Goa and is available on Waves, Prasar Bharati’s OTT platform, alongside its multi-platform, multilingual release in 12 Indian and 7 international languages, per The Tribune’s launch report.
What this profile does not claim
- It asserts neither the exact presidential-assent date of the 1990 Act (12 September 1990 in tertiary listings) nor “inform, educate and entertain” as the Act’s verbatim mandate; only enactment in 1990 and operational existence from 23 November 1997 were independently verified.
- It does not present WAVES user and download figures as audited numbers; they are corporation and government statements as reported in trade press (see openItems for the reported range).
- It does not state the “more than 100 crore listeners” figure for Mann Ki Baat as fact; it is a study cited by the corporation’s CEO in 2023.
- It does not evaluate the corporation’s current editorial independence; the “state-controlled” classification and section 23 analysis are the State Media Monitor’s, attributed here.
- It asserts no Season 2 details beyond The Tribune’s IFFI report; the PIB release (PRID 1966550) returned HTTP 403 and was not bypassed.
- It does not cover the carriage dispute over linear television channels on WAVES or the platform’s revenue-sharing economics; those were beyond this research pass.
Timeline
- 1990
- The Prasar Bharati (Broadcasting Corporation of India) Act is enacted, constituting India's statutory public broadcasting corporation.
- 1997
- The corporation is brought into existence on 23 November 1997; All India Radio and Doordarshan are transferred out of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting into the new body.
- 2022
- Gaurav Dwivedi, a 1995-batch IAS officer of the Chhattisgarh cadre, assumes charge as Chief Executive Officer on 22 November 2022.
- 2023
- The corporation directs that "All India Radio" be replaced with "Akashvani" — the name used in the 1990 Act — in official usage.
- 2024
- PB-SHABD, a syndication service supplying news material to other organisations, is launched in March.
- 2024
- WAVES, the corporation's OTT platform, is launched on 20 November at the 55th International Film Festival of India in Goa.
- 2024
- Season 2 of "Krish, Trish and Baltiboy" (Bharat Hain Hum) is launched at IFFI in Goa; The Tribune reports it streaming on Waves.
- 2026
- MyWAVES, a citizen-creator layer inside the WAVES app, is launched on 23 March.
- 2026
- Prasoon Joshi is appointed chairman of the corporation in May, after the post stood vacant from December 2025.
What we could not verify
These claims came up in research and could not be confirmed. They are recorded here rather than published as fact or quietly dropped. If you hold a source that settles one, please tell us.
- The precise presidential-assent date of the Prasar Bharati Act (12 September 1990 in tertiary listings) was not independently verified from a citable full-read source; the profile asserts only enactment in 1990 and operational existence from 23 November 1997.
- The "more than 100 crore listeners" reach figure for Mann Ki Baat is a study cited by the CEO in April 2023 reporting (The Economic Times), not an independently audited count.
- WAVES scale figures rest on corporation and government statements as reported in trade press, not audited metrics: 1.2 crore registered users and 1.5 crore downloads (Storyboard18, September 2026), while a later industry report cited government statements putting September 2026 registered users at 1.4 crore (Exchange4Media). The range is presented, not reconciled.
- The "state-controlled" classification and the section 23 editorial analysis are the State Media Monitor's assessment; this profile attributes them rather than adopting them as its own verdict.
- This profile does not evaluate the corporation's current editorial performance, nor the AIDCF/TDSAT carriage dispute over linear channels on WAVES, which were beyond this research pass.
Sources
7 sources (4 tier 1, 3 tier 2), each opened and read against the claim it supports. Every source is independent of the subject; no first-party material is cited. See the source policy.
Built from seven sources read in full: four tier1 (Business Standard, The Tribune, The New Indian Express, The Economic Times) and three tier2 (Storyboard18, Exchange4Media, State Media Monitor). No Wikipedia content is cited; the Wikipedia article was used only as a lead index for candidate facts, each of which was then checked against the sources above. The PIB press release on the Krish, Trish and Baltiboy Season 2 co-production (PRID 1966550) returned HTTP 403 on fetch and was not bypassed; this profile asserts only what The Tribune's IFFI report confirms. User and download figures for WAVES are reported trade-press/government-statement figures, not audited numbers, and the profile says so where they appear.
- Supports: Statutory autonomous public-service broadcaster status; constitution under the Prasar Bharati Act 1990; operational since 1997; All India Radio and Doordarshan as its two divisions; Prasoon Joshi's appointment as chairman by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting in May 2026 (article date-stamped 2 May 2026 in its URL) Open original source
- Second season of animated series Krish, Trish, and Baltiboy: Bharat Hain Hum launched at IFFI Tier 1Supports: Season 2 of Krish, Trish and Baltiboy streaming on Waves, "the newly launched Prasar Bharti's OTT platform" — the directly-sourced Prasar-Bharati/Waves/Krish-Trish-and-Baltiboy relationship used in this profile Open original source
- Supports: WAVES launched at the 55th IFFI in Goa; initial offering (65 channels, 40 live, 10 languages); integration of DD and All India Radio services plus archival material; ONDC shopping integration; CEO Gaurav Dwivedi's on-record quotes; revenue-sharing model and bid preparations Open original source
- Supports: Mann Ki Baat broadcast at 11 am on the last Sunday of every month on the entire All India Radio and Doordarshan network (the directly-sourced carriage relationship); programme start date 3 October 2014; Dwivedi identified as Prasar Bharati CEO; the cited study's "more than 100 crore listeners" figure; translation into 22 Indian languages, 29 dialects and 11 foreign languages; 500+ AIR broadcast centres Open original source
- Supports: WAVES scale figures (1.2 crore registered users, 1.5 crore downloads, 24,000 titles, 15,000 hours, 130+ countries, 26+ languages, 140+ TV channels, 220 radio services, all 35 Doordarshan satellite channels); MyWAVES creator layer launched 23 March 2026; the distinction between WAVES OTT and the World Audio Visual and Entertainment Summit (WAVES Summit, Mumbai, May 2025) Open original source
- Supports: Gaurav Dwivedi identified as Prasar Bharati CEO; one crore registered users by June 2026 (per the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting) and 1.4 crore by September 2026 (per government statements); the November 2025 revenue-sharing notice for linear channels on WAVES Open original source
- Supports: Statutory public corporation within the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting's portfolio; brought into existence 23 November 1997; Doordarshan and Akashvani as constituent networks; May 2023 Akashvani renaming directive; ~470 broadcasting centres, 23 languages, 179 dialects; DD Free Dish as India's only free-to-air DTH service; NewsOnAir app; PB-SHABD syndication launch (March 2024); board composition and appointment machinery; Dwivedi's IAS background and 2022-2027 term; the Joshi/Sehgal chairmanship timeline; ₹2,291.88 crore 2026-27 allocation; section 23 binding-direction power and the "state-controlled" classification (attributed, not adopted as this profile's editorial verdict) Open original source
Support independent research
Found this profile useful?
You can support FactsLedger by making a donation. Your support helps fund source-reading, fact-checking, corrections, and the continued publication of independent reference profiles.
Support the research