E-auction for the allotment of vacant MPEG-2 slots on the DD Free Dish commenced on Monday, February 19.
The pubcaster has reportedly secured a little over Rs 40 crore from day one of the auction.
Prasar Bharati had made an announcement inviting applications for these slots for the period April 1, 2024-March 31, 2025 in mid January this year.
Categorisation of TV channels include six buckets.
Bucket A+ that includes, GEC-Hindi /Urdu channels, Bucket A that has movie-Hindi / Urdu channels, Bucket B with music-Hindi/Urdu channels, sports Hindi / Urdu channels, all channels of Bhojpuri Language, all other remaining genre of Hindi /Urdu, Bucket C with news and current Affairs-Hindi/UrduChannels, Bucket D, with devotional / spiritual / Ayush, all genres of Marathi and Punjabi Channels and news and current affairs English channels and Bucket R1 that has bucket for all channels in languages not covered above.
The reserve prices for round one of the buckets are Rs. 15 crore, Rs12 crore, Rs10 crore, Rs7crore, Rs6 crore and Rs3 crore.
Eligible satellite channels licensed by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and companies with valid permissions can participate, along with international public broadcasters with permission.
Successful channels will be placed on vacant Logical Channel Numbers (LCNs) of DD Free Dish. After completion of e-auction, successful channels may apply giving three options in the order of preference for allotment of LCN.