According to a senior official in Prasar Bharati, the stress of the channel will be on showing the best of sports with special emphasis on indigenous games. And the mission statement for DD Sports will reflect this focus, the official says.

The USP of the channel should be Indian sport, the official says. ``Our aim is to popularise sport such as kabaddi, kushti, gilli danda, khoko and boat races,'' says the spokesperson. And the mission statement will talk about just that: making the traditional sports of India go places through the channel.

Elaborating on that, the official says: ``We are quite clear on our mission. We know that DD Sports must show something that other channels don't.'' Hence the bid to push the Indian USP.

With Prasar Bharati having contracts with all major sport federations in India, showing Indian games will not be tough for the channel. Along with the stress on indigenous games, the channel is also concentrating on a repackaging effort. The channel is looking at producing quality programmes with the precious sport footage that Doordarshan has collected over the years.

In light of the recent sports telecast scam involving Doordarshan and its officials, a mission statement for DD Sports at this point is expected to prove timely.

DD Sports, which was launched on March 18, 1999, turned into a pay channel in September 2000 just before the Sydney Olympic Games. The channel, which had exclusive telecast rights for Sydney Olympics, drew a lot of flak for turning `pay' just before the biggest show on earth -Olympics.