Thiruvananthapuram, Apr 18 (IANS): The Thiruvananthapuram unit of Doordarshan Thursday became the first among the 29 DD regional centres of the country to possess the webcasting of news bulletins facility, an official said.

S.M. Khan, director general of Doordarshan News, Thursday inaugurated the facility at Doordarshan Thiruvananthapuram.

The Thiruvananthapuram unit of Doordarshan thus became the first of the 29 regional centres to have webcasting facility essentially for "broadcasting" over internet.

Khan also inaugurated the digital storage of archives for news and this would have all news visuals since 1980.

Khan told reporters that the regional kendra (centre) here is all set to launch a 24X7 news channel soon.

"As of now, our channel here has the maximum viewership among all other channels with 85 per cent of the coverage through the terrestrial network," said Khan.

He pointed out that half of the expenditure of the kendras is met through the revenues they generate.

The Thiruvananthapuram regional kendra's (centres) revenues shot up to Rs.15 crore in the last fiscal, up from Rs.11 crore in 2011-12.

Khan said the Sam Pitroda Committee set up to restructure Prasar Bharati is doing a good job.

"Five different working groups have been set up and they will soon submit their reports to the Pitroda Committee, which would look into these and will submit its report in six month's time," said Khan.