MIB's Anurag Thakur launches Prasar Bharati's news sharing service SHABD; Says ‘historic day for India’s I&B sector’

On March 13, Union Minister of Information and Broadcasting, Anurag Singh Thakur launched PB-SHABD, a news sharing service from Prasar Bharati and websites of DD News and Akashvani News as well as updated News on Air mobile app at an event in National Media Centre, New Delhi.

Speaking on the occasion, Thakur said that today was a historic day for the information and broadcasting sector of the country. “Over the years, Prasar Bharti has cultivated an elaborate network of news gathering from as well as news delivery to every corner of the country in every regional language. Now we intend to share this accurate and meaningful content with the rest of the print and electronic media industry of India”, he said.

The Minister further added that the news organizations will be provided with clean feed and will not carry the logo of Doordarshan. This feed will curate content from all corners of the country in various languages. This will revolutionize the news industry and will massively support the smaller news organizations that do not have the benefit of an extensive network for content gathering. PB-SHABD will be a single point source of news content for all such organizations, he said.

The Minister further informed that the SHABD service is being offered free of cost for the first year as an introductory offer and will provide news stories in all major Indian languages across fifty categories.

Speaking about the revamped websites of Doordarshan News and All India Radio and the NewsOnAIR app, Thakur said that All India Radio has continued to remain immensely relevant in the age of extensive mobile connectivity and is still a source of accurate information about government schemes and policies. The app will have many new features like Personalized news feeds, push notifications for breaking news, multimedia content integration, offline reading capability, live streaming for real-time coverage, easy social media sharing, location-based news delivery, bookmarking for saving articles and powerful search functionality.

Secretary, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Sanjay Jaju, speaking earlier congratulated the whole Prasar Bharti team for the pilot of SHABD and the new website and app launches. He further said that the portal will create a lot of synergy and will be beneficial in dissemination of meaningful news content across the country.

CEO, Prasar Bharti, Gaurav Dwivedi said that Prasar Bharati will make an outreach to media organisations and share audio, video, photo and text based information gathered by its network.

PB SHABD platform has been designed to provide daily news feeds in video, audio, text, photo and other formats to the subscribers from media landscape. Powered by the vast network of Prasar Bharati reporters, correspondents and stringers, the service would bring you the latest news from different parts of the country.

The shared feeds can be used for customized storytelling across different platforms. As an introductory offer, the services would be available free of cost and help the smaller newspapers, TV channels and digital portals immensely. The details are available at https://shabd.prasarbharati.org/

The revamped websites of DD News and Akashvani News and revamped News on Air app would provide users seamless experience and better user engagement. The websites will have a user-friendly experience, latest design elements so that users can have seamless experience. Users can explore intriguing news audios, engage in special programs, and tune into daily and weekly special broadcasts. With its organized layout and diverse content offerings, the revamped websites enrich the news consumption journey for users. Dedicated sections include National, International, Education, Health, Business & Economy, Science & Tech, Sports, Environment, and Opinion.

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