Prasar Bharati has made an announcement inviting applications for the allotment of vacant MPEG-2 slots on the DD Free Dish for the period April 1, 2024-March 31, 2025. The online e-auction process is set to tentatively commence from February 19, 2024. Eligible satellite channels licensed by the Ministry of I&B and companies with valid permissions can participate, along with international public broadcasters with permission.
Categorisation of TV channels include six buckets. Bucket A+(GEC-Hindi /Urdu Channels), Bucket A (Movie-Hindi / Urdu Channels), Bucket B (Music-Hindi/Urdu Channels, Sports Hindi / Urdu Channels, All Channels of Bhojpuri Language, All other remaining Genre of Hindi /Urdu), Bucket C (News and Current Affairs-Hindi/UrduChannels), Bucket D(Devotional / Spiritual / Ayush, All Genres of Marathi and Punjabi Channels and News and Current Affairs English Channels) and Bucket R1(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.
The last date for application is February 12, 2024.
“Successful channels will be placed on vacant Logical Channel Numbers (LCNs) of D Free Dish. After completion of e-auction, successful channels may apply giving three options in the order of preference for allotment of LCN. However, this does not guarantee for placement of successful channels on preferences given for ICN. All such requests shall be considered by Prasar Bharati in accordance with prescribed procedure for allotment allotment/change of LCN to private TV channels. Prasar Bharati’s decision in this regard shall be final,” said the notice.