The 44th E-Auction for DD Free Dish has been completed. 53 new and old channels will start broadcasting w.e.f. April 1, 2020.
Main Highlights
- The 44th E-Auction completed
- More than 54 Broadcasters participate in the 44 E-Auction
- 53 channels have won the slots
- New channels will be on air on dd free dish w.e.f. April 1, 2020
Whats is DD Free Dish?
DD Free Dish is the only Indian DTH Service that is available free of cost for the public. Doordarshan started its free direct to home service with the name of DD Direct Plus in December 2004, which was renamed on 27.08.2013 as DD Free Dish.
The Free Dish viewers can enjoy 88 SD tv channels in the MPEG-2 category, 20 channels in the MPEG-4 category and also 40 radio channels. DD Free Dish has around 30 million households which are more than 15% of the country’s total households. Public Broadcaster, Prasar Bharati is owned and operating the DD Free Dish.
Prasar Bharati Annual E-Auction
Prasar Bharati has invited applications for the allotment of MPEG-2 slots for the period from April 1, 2020 to March 31, 2021 through online 44th E-Auction which was held from February 24-28, 2020. More than 54 broadcasters participated in the e-auction out of which 53 dd free dish channels have won the slots.
The 44th E-Auction result was declared by the Prasar Bharati on February 29, 2020. The channels included free to air as well as paid channels. The viewers who have MPEG-2 Set-Top Box can watch these channels. The bucket-wise channel list is as under:
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Bucket A+
The Bucket A+ is reserved for GEC (Hindi) category channels. The reserve price for this bucket was Rs. 15 crore and the highest bid price for the Bucket A+ was 15.2 crore. A total of 60.64 crore received from the four broadcasters who have won the slots in Bucket A+. The names of the channels are as under:
Bucket A
The Bucket A is reserved for Hindi movie channels. The reserve price for this bucket was Rs. 12 crores and the highest bid price for the Bucket A was 13.6 crore. 12 channels have been allocated the slots in Bucket A is Rs. 156 crore. The names of the channels are as under:
Bucket B
The Bucket B is reserved for Hindi Music, Sports, Bhojpuri Movies, Bhojpuri GEC channels. The reserved price for this Bucket was 10 crore. A total of Rs. 184.8 crore has been collected from the 16 channels on Bucket B which is the highest amount in all buckets. The highest bid price for the Bucket B was 12.25 crore and the average price of the bids was Rs. 11.55 crore. The list of the 16 channels is as under:
Bucket C
The Public Broadcaster has raised Rs. 141.05 crore at an average price of Rs. 10.8 crore out of bucket C from 13 slots. The top bid price was Rs. 12.25 crore. The reserve price of the bucket was Rs. 7 crore. The list of 13 channels is as under:
Bucket D
For Bucket D and R1, the combined bid price is Rs. 30.85 and Rs. 20.91. In the two Buckets, a total of 8 slots have been sold. The list of 8 slots is as under:
Bucket R-1
Conclusion
These are the total 53 channels which will start w.e.f. 1st April 2020 on DD Free Dish MPEG-2 Set-Top Box devices.
