Prasar Bharati has recently announced the 70th e-auction for MPEG-2 slots on DD Free Dish. The auction is scheduled to take place on July 4, 2023, and is open to all eligible broadcasters.
The purpose of this auction is to fill the vacant MPEG-2 slots on DD Free Dish. These slots became available as the educational TV channels previously running on MPEG-2 were converted to MPEG-4. The slots are being offered on a non-exclusive basis, meaning that multiple broadcasters can be awarded the same slot. The validity of these slots will be for a period of one year.
The available slots are categorized into six buckets based on genre and language. Each bucket has a specific reserve price. Here are the details of the reserve prices for each bucket:
Bucket A+: This bucket consists of Hindi General Entertainment Channels (GECs). The reserve price for this bucket is set at Rs 17.41 crore.
Bucket A: This bucket includes Hindi movie channels and teleshopping channels of all languages. The reserve price for this bucket is Rs 15.27 crore.
Bucket B: This bucket is for Hindi music channels, Hindi sports channels, and all channels of the Bhojpuri language. The reserve price for this bucket is Rs 14.66 crore.
Bucket C: This bucket comprises Hindi news and current affairs channels. The reserve price for this bucket is Rs 14.37 crore.
Bucket D: This bucket is for all other remaining genres of Hindi channels, devotional/spiritual/Ayush channels, all genres of Marathi, Punjabi, and Urdu channels, as well as English news and current affairs channels. The reserve price for this bucket is Rs 11.58 crore.
Bucket R1: This bucket is for all channels in the language genre that are not covered in any other bucket. The reserve price for this bucket is Rs 2.20 crore.
In previous MPEG-2 slot auctions, the platform’s extensive reach has proven to be lucrative for Prasar Bharati. The auctions saw impressive turnouts in terms of bids and total earnings. For example, Bucket A+ (Hindi GECs) sold 11 slots for Rs 189.65 crore, compared to six slots that went for Rs 91.1 crore in the previous year’s auction. This resulted in a substantial increase in the bucket’s average earnings by at least Rs 2 crore.