MUMBAI: After a gap of almost two
months, Doordarshan’s subscription-
free DTH platform Freedish will have
its new round of e-auction to fill up
vacant slots.
DD Freedish has set the reserve
price per DTH slot at Rs 4.3 crore
(Rs 43 million), the same as in the
previous round. It will conduct its
28th e-auction on 28 July.
In the 27th e-auction on 30 May, five
channels had taken up the slots on
DD Freedish. These included two
additions, namely Premiere Cinema
and 9X Jalwa. Two channels, Vision
Shiksha and RT Movies, renewed
their slots. Sony Pictures Networks
India’s FTA Hindi movie channel
Sony Wah, which had taken a slot on
pro rata basis earlier, had bagged the
slot for a year.
For the 28th e-auction, the last date
for submission of application is 28
July, 12 pm. Noida-based C1 India
will conduct the e-auction on behalf
of Prasar Bharati.
Interested channels will have to
submit uplinking and downlinking
permission from the Ministry of
Information & Broadcasting (MIB)
along with the application. They also
have to deposit a participation
amount of Rs 1.5 crore (Rs 15
million) as demand draft in favour of
DD besides a non-refundable
processing fee of Rs 10,000.
Successful channels will have to
arrange IRD boxes in advance to
place their channel on the platform
on time. The EMD drafts will be
returned to the unsuccessful bidders
within a week or immediately after
the completion of the e-auction.
Channels that have won slots on the
platform will have to deposit Rs 1.10
crore (Rs 11 million) within one
month from the placement of the
channel on Freedish along with
Service Tax @ 15% on the total bid
amount.
The second instalment amounting to
Rs 1.10 crore (Rs 11 million) will
have to be deposited by the
successful channel in the second
month from the placement of the
channel.
The balance bid amount will have to
be deposited on or before six
months from the placement of the
channel, failing which the deposited
amount will be forfeited and channel
will be discontinued from the
platform after a 21-day
discontinuation notice......