New Delhi: According to media reports, no broadcaster participated in the recent 79th e-auction of MPEG-2 slots on DD Free Dish due to the high costs. Media reports indicate that broadcasters deemed the base price to be excessively high.
Prasar Bharati had announced the availability of vacant MPEG-2 slots on DD Free Dish, inviting applications for the period from July 24, 2024, to March 31, 2025, through its 79th online e-auction.
The public broadcaster organized TV channels into various categories based on genre and language for the allocation period. Bucket A+ included GEC channels (Hindi/Urdu), while Bucket A consisted of movie channels (Hindi/Urdu). Bucket B was designated for music (Hindi/Urdu), sports (Hindi/Urdu), Bhojpuri language channels, and other remaining Hindi/Urdu genres.
Bucket C covered news and current affairs channels (Hindi/Urdu), and Bucket D included devotional/spiritual/Ayush channels, all Marathi and Punjabi genres, and news and current affairs channels (English). Bucket R1 encompassed all channels in languages not included in the other buckets. The starting reserve prices were Rs 14,61,31,000 for Round 1 (Bucket A+), Rs 13,03,14,000 for Round 2 (Bucket C), Rs 12,58,44,000 for Round 3 (Bucket A), Rs 12,44,69,000 for Round 4 (Bucket D), Rs 12,37,81,000 for Round 5 (Bucket B), and Rs 9,14,61,000 for Round 6 (Bucket R1). The deadline for application submissions was July 15th.
In May, DD Free Dish’s 77th e-auction for MPEG-2 slots also saw no bidders, with broadcasters claiming that the base price was excessively high.
In February, Prasar Bharati completed its 75th online auction for DD Free Dish MPEG-2 slots, generating Rs 1,156 crore from the sale of 64 slots. The highest number of slots, 14, were allocated to Bucket A (Hindi movie channels) for Rs 241 crore. This was followed by the news genre, which secured 13 slots for Rs 231.95 crore, and Hindi GEC channels, which obtained 12 slots for Rs 227.7 crore.
