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Prasar Bharati invites applications for allotment of vacant MPEG-2 slots of DD Free Dish
The applications are for the period from July 24, 2024 to March 31, 2025 and will be invited through 79th e-auction process on July 16th.
The starting Reserve Price for the Round 1 (Bucket A+) is Rs 14,61,31,000, Round 2 (Bucket C) is Rs 13,03, 14,000; Round 3 (Bucket A) is Rs 12,58,44,000; Round 4 (Bucket D) is Rs 12,44,69,000; Round 5 (Bucket B) is Rs 12,37,81,000 and Round 6 (Bucket R1) is Rs 9,14,61,000.
Prasar Bharati has invited applications for the allotment of vacant MPEG-2 slots of DD Free Dish. The allotment period is from July 24, 2024 to March 31, 2025.
The application are invited through the 79th e-auction process, which will tentatively be held on July 16th.
The e-auction will be conducted in accordance with 'E-auction Methodology' for the allotment of DD Free Dish slots to private TV channels, notified by Prasar Bharati on January 23, 2023 and subsequent amendment on December 13, 2023 which are available on pubcaster's website. Only satellite channels licensed by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting would be allowed to participate in the e-auction.
Additionally, only companies holding valid permission from the MIB can apply for the participation in e-auction for allocation of the DD Free Dish slots,
International Public Broadcasters licensed by the MIB can also participate in the e-auction.
According to the revised methodology, Bucket A+ will now feature GEC (Hindi/Urdu) channels, Bucket A will host movie (Hindi/Urdu) channels, and Bucket B will include music (Hindi/Urdu), sports (Hindi/Urdu), Bhojpuri language, and other remaining Hindi/Urdu genres.
Bucket C is dedicated to news and current affairs (Hindi/Urdu), and Bucket D encompasses devotional/spiritual/Ayush, all genres of Marathi and Punjabi Channels, and news and current affairs (English). Additionally, Bucket R1 will cover languages not represented in other buckets.
The starting Reserve Price for the Round 1 (Bucket A+) is Rs 14,61,31,000, Round 2 (Bucket C) is Rs 13,03, 14,000; Round 3 (Bucket A) is Rs 12,58,44,000; Round 4 (Bucket D) is Rs 12,44,69,000; Round 5 (Bucket B) is Rs 12,37,81,000 and Round 6 (Bucket R1) is Rs 9,14,61,000.
The last date of submission of the applications is July 15th.
In May, Prasar Bharati announced increasing DD Free Dish slots next year, with the number of slots to go up by 40. The pubcaster is getting a new transponder to increase the number of slots as the demand remains high.
Free Dish reach
The e-auction, which ran from February 19, 2024, sold slots for the period April 1, 2024, to March 31, 2025. DD Free Dish boasts a reach of 43-45 million households, making it a significant platform for broadcasters. While addressing the audience at the 2024 FICCI FRAMES, Gaurav Dwivedi, CEO, Prasar Bharti said that the number of television homes using DD FreeDish will increase from 45 million at present to around 50-60 million in the next four to five years.
In a previous interview with Storyboard18 in 2023, Dwivedi had said, “We are in the process of getting additional transponders so that the range can be further increased and there is more bandwidth available and hopefully from the next year we should be able to offer even a greater variety of content to the viewers by allowing a larger number of channels to come.”
DD Free Dish's expansive reach brings a heterogeneous mix in audience profile combining both urban and rural areas, making it a must-have platform for broadcasters targeting national advertisers with a wide target audience.
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