I&B ministry suspends auction of slots on DD Free Dish, to review process

[Sarkar]

The information and broadcasting (I&B) ministry has decided to review the channel slot auction process of state broadcaster Doordarshan’s free-to-air direct-to-home (DTH) platform DD Free Dish.

The ministry has asked the broadcaster to suspend e-auctioning of slots on DD Free Dish until further notice, two people familiar with the development said. The last e-auction took place in July, in which Doordarshan (run by Prasar Bharati) had earned Rs85.10 crore and awarded 11 channel slots to private broadcasters. Another auction scheduled for August was cancelled by the broadcaster, citing “administrative reasons”.

“The ministry has not given any reason behind this sudden decision. The slots on the platform are getting vacant and private broadcasters are not able to renew those. Prasar Bharati has been refusing renewal since August,” said one of the two people cited above, on the condition of anonymity.

I&B ministry suspends auction of slots on DD Free Dish, to review process

 

[DDD+]

ithink reason is last time star win slots and added star sports and star bharat those are paid channels and dish tv going to Court so dissition is painding 10 October so wait Court report .....a
this time discovery also participate i think
wait for court dissition

 

[Sarkar]

ithink reason is last time star win slots and added star sports and star bharat those are paid channels and dish tv going to Court so dissition is painding 10 October so wait Court report .....a
this time discovery also participate i think
wait for court dissition

Neither of those chs are pay chs

 

[Shantanu]

Neither of those chs are pay chs

Star bharat is pay channel for all dth. Only for dd free dish, it's FTA.

 

[Sarkar]

Star bharat is pay channel for all dth. Only for dd free dish, it's FTA.

where do you see it ?

 

[DDD+]

star bharat is pay channal for all paid dth

 

[Shantanu]

where do you see it ?

Uday Shankar (CEO of STAR India) said it in interview.

Will Star Bharat continue to remain a pay channel also as per media reports?

Don’t trust everything that you read in the media. However, there is nothing that prohibits a channel being available on DD FreeDish and on pay TV platforms. A whole bunch of channels in the past have done this; almost the entire language news category is on pay TV and FreeDish platforms at the same time. A whole bunch of entertainment channels too have followed that practice. So, what you hear about Star Bharat is simply mischievous.

Please clarify whether for Star Bharat a consumer will have to pay if available on DTH or cable platforms?


Yes, a consumer of a DTH service or a cable platform will continue to pay for Star Bharat just as he did for Life OK for the time being. We sought permission from the government saying the channel will be rebranded as Star Bharat and would be offered on DD FreeDish as well. So, the pricing issue remains where it is. Some people have chosen to find a problem with Star Bharat, while being totally comfortable with their own friendly channels. We are the only ones to have fresh original content for a channel on FreeDish like Star Bharat. Quality of production is high on Star Bharat as we are spending the same amount of money per hour or per half hour that we would have spent on Star Plus, which is a premium channel.

Star's Uday Shankar on distribution challenges, IPL, FTA vs. pay TV, innovations, Make in India content…and much more | Indian Television Dot Com

 

[Prashant Shridhar]

The main problem is private channels making profit by joining dd fd platform and nobody watching DD channels even in dd fd...
Find more on..
FreeDish loses billions owing to drop in ratings, ad rev

 

[mohit_gupta79]

Any news on the e-auction???

 

[Prashant Shridhar]

TDSAT gives Prasar Bharati 2 days to respond to FreeDish auction suspension