New Delhi: India News has successfully secured one of the two available MPEG-2 slots on Prasar Bharati’s DD Free Dish platform during the 90th online e-auction held on Friday. The channel was the sole bidder and bagged the allotment at the reserve price of ₹8.20 crore, according to sources.
The newly allotted slot will remain valid from August 29, 2025, to March 31, 2026, as per the terms of Prasar Bharati’s invitation for applications announced on August 11.
The auction was conducted under the E-auction Methodology 2025, a framework issued by Prasar Bharati on January 3 this year for assigning Free Dish slots to private TV channels. Participation was restricted to satellite TV channels holding valid licences from the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB). In addition, international public broadcasters approved by the Ministry were also allowed to bid.
Bucket Classifications
For transparency and category-wise allocation, Prasar Bharati divided the channels into six distinct buckets:
- Bucket A Plus: Hindi and Urdu General Entertainment Channels (GECs).
- Bucket A: Hindi and Urdu movie channels.
- Bucket B: Hindi and Urdu music and sports channels, Bhojpuri channels, and other genres in Hindi and Urdu.
- Bucket C: Hindi and Urdu news and current affairs channels.
- Bucket D: Devotional, spiritual and Ayush channels; Marathi and Punjabi channels; English news and current affairs channels; and newly launched or relaunched regional channels (excluding Hindi and Urdu).
- Bucket R: Regional language channels (excluding Hindi, Urdu, Marathi and Punjabi) listed in Schedule 8 of the Constitution, provided they are operational on at least one private DTH platform or DD Free Dish, or with a registered MSO.
With this win, India News expands its reach on the DD Free Dish network, India’s largest free-to-air direct-to-home (DTH) service that caters to millions of households across rural and semi-urban markets.
