New Delhi: Prasar Bharati has invited broadcasters to apply for vacant MPEG-4 slots on its newly created Hindi streams TS-9 and TS-8 on the DD Free Dish platform, offering them free of charge until end of March 2026. The move opens a significant opportunity for regional satellite channels to strengthen their distribution on India’s largest free-to-air DTH service.
The public broadcaster has clarified that only regional-language satellite TV channels—licensed by the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting and listed under Schedule 8 of the Constitution, except Hindi and Urdu—are eligible to participate. Channels catering to underrepresented or low-penetration linguistic markets on the platform, such as Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Bangla, Assamese and Odia, as well as regional news channels, will receive priority consideration.
To qualify, applicants must possess valid I&B permissions and should have been broadcasting continuously for at least three years in the genre and language they intend to declare.
Prasar Bharati has tightened compliance norms, making Genre and Language classification a critical part of the evaluation. Broadcasters must submit clear, consistent and verifiable documentation supporting their declared category. Any ambiguity or conflicting information will render the application technically incomplete.
As per existing content guidelines, at least 75% of all telecast material must match the channel’s declared genre and language. The broadcaster’s content mix will be scrutinized at the time of application, in line with the Genre & Language Guide, the Uplinking and Downlinking Guidelines, and the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995. Channels are barred from completely altering their content profile within a month.
For language classification specifically, the broadcaster must ensure that three-fourths of programming aligns with the claimed linguistic identity. Non-compliance may result in a show-cause notice within seven days, and persistent mismatch can affect eligibility, as outlined in the e-Auction Methodology 2023.
Additionally, channels that have already secured slots in any DD Free Dish e-auctions conducted in 2024–25 will not be eligible for this special allotment.
Prasar Bharati emphasized that the current offer is purely on a pilot basis and will remain free only until 31 March 2026.
