Prasar Bharati invites bid for DD Freedish MPEG-2 slots; e-auctions from Feb 10

New Delhi: In the wake of releasing an updated auction policy, Prasar Bharati has released a notice inviting applications for the allotment of the vacant MPEG-2 slots on its DD Freedish platform. 

The validity of the slots will be for the period from April 1, 2025, to March 31, 2026.

Slated to be held online, the auction will take place on February 10, 2025, making this the 7th annual and the 85th online auction since the inception of the public broadcaster.

The last date to submit the applications is February 4, 2025, by 3:00 PM.

Last week, the pubcaster released the revised e-auction policy with no major change in the bidding process for MPEG-2 slots. 

Prasar Bharati said that only the satellite channels permitted and licensed by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting will be allowed to participate in the e-auction.

Aligned with the updated prerequisite of having 75% content in the genre and language declared by the channel, the public broadcaster wrote, “Broadcasters desirous of allotment of slots on DD Free Dish are required to provide clear and unambiguous proof in support of the genre and language classification of their channel.” Failing which, the application will be deemed ineligible and summarily rejected, Prasar Bharati noted.

The starting reserve price for the Bucket A+ of the MPEG-2 slots is Rs 15 crore, followed by Rs 12 crore for Bucket A. The reserve price for Bucket R is fixed at Rs 3 crore. The second round will witness an uptick of Rs 1 crore in each category. In addition, the satellite channels participating in this auction will have to pay a participation fee of Rs 1.5 crore and a processing fee of Rs 25,000.

Bucket A+ includes the GEC channels in Hindi and Urdu languages. It is pertinent to note that the Urdu language was recently added by the public broadcaster to the various buckets in the e-auction. Then comes Bucket A with movie channels in the same language. Bucket B is dedicated to music, sports, channels in Bhojpuri, and other remaining genres of Hindi and Urdu.

Bucket C, i.e., the fourth bucket, is dedicated to news channels in the two languages - Hindi and Urdu. Bucket D holds all the devotional and spiritual channels, including Marathi, Punjabi, and other regional channels. English news channels are also included in this bucket. The last bucket, Bucket R, has channels in regional languages other than Hindi, Urdu, Marathi, and Punjabi.

Prasar Bharati also invited international public broadcasters, who are permitted and licensed by the I&B ministry, to participate in the e-auction for the allocation of DD Freedish slots.