Prasar Bharati has announced the dates of MPEG-2 e-auction slots for DD Free Dish. The pubcaster will accept filings from broadcasters till 4 February and the auction will be conducted on 10 February. Additionally, the auction date for MPEG-4 slots meant for HD channels is likely to be announced soon.
Storyboard18 had first reported about Prasar Bharati’s revised e-auction policy for DD Free Dish slots. Now High Definition (HD) channels can participate in the bidding process. The reserve price for e-auction of MPEG-4 slots for private HD channels is Rs 80 Lakhs with second slot at increment of Rs 1 Lakh for second slot. Slots for MPEG-4 will be equivalent to 40 SD as compared to 11-12 slots earlier.
Prasar Bharati had introduced ‘e-Auction Methodology for Allotment of Slots on DD Free Dish Platform 2025, according to which the participation fee for MPEG-2 slots is Rs 1.50 crore while of MPEG-4 slots is Rs 3 Lakhs. International Public Broadcasters permitted under relevant guidelines are also eligible to participate in e-auction. The pubcaster has categorized TV channels in different buckets listed below:
Bucket A+ for GEC (Hindi/Urdu) channels.
Bucket A for Movies (Hindi/Urdu) channels.
Bucket B for Music, Sports, Bhojpuri channels and remaining genres of Hindi and Urdu.
Bucket C for News and Current Affairs.
Bucket D for Devotional and all genres of Marathi and Punjabi channels, News and Current Affairs (English) channels and yet to be launched/re-launched channels in 8 languages as mentioned in schedule 8 of the constitution of India.
Bucket R for all channels of regional languages and channels in operation and available in the concerned language on the date of issue of notification for e-auction on at least one private DTH platform/ DD Free Dish or at least one registered MSO.
The reserve price for MPEG-2 slots for the commencement of e-auction for different buckets shall be:
While for remaining rounds the starting price would be:
The eligibility criteria for channel providers participating in e-auction includes only satellite TV channels permitted/ licensed by the MIB for downlinking/distribution in India under relevant guidelines eligible for placement on DD Free Dish.
Prasar Bharati has also introduced a 75% alignment rule wherein 75% of all content should belong to the genre and language that is declared by the bidder during the application. Apart from these changes, no other transformation has been implemented in the 2025 methodology. The recently released methodology expands on the framework of 2023.