In a recent notification, Prasar Bharati has announced amendments to the e-auction methodology for allotment of Slots of DD Free Dish Platform to private satellite channels initially notified on January 27, 2023.
The key changes include replacing “AllIndiaRadio” with “Aakashwani” and adjusting the categorisation of channels in different buckets.
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 content declaration process for broadcasters has been refined, with a new emphasis on ensuring 75 percent of the channel’s content aligns with the declared genre and language. Broadcasters will need to maintain this ratio, excluding advertisements and promos.
Prasar Bharati has also provided an illustrative example for a mid-year e-auction, detailing the pro-rata reserve prices for vacant MPEG-2 slots and the round-wise starting reserve prices for participating buckets.
These amendments aim to streamline the slot allotment process, providing clearer guidelines for broadcasters participating in the DD Free Dish Platform’s e-auction.