Star, Zee and Viacom18 among Successful Bidders for FTA Channels on DD FreeDish

TAGS: Star | Zee | Viacom 18 | FTA channels | DD
| Free Dish | Zee Anmol | Star Utsav |
NEW
DELHI:
Rishtey
owned
by
Viacom18,
Zee
Anmol
and
Star
Utsav
are
among
the
six
slots
filled
through
the 14th
online
e-
auction
for
the
direct-
to-
home
(DTH)
service
of
Doordarshan
Freedish
conducted on 11 and 12 August.
Doordarshan sources
told indiantelevision.com that the slots were
auctioned in the range of Rs 4.5 crore to Rs 4.7
crore, while the reserve price had been Rs 3 crore.
The other slots went to Big Magic, B4U Music,
and Shree News.
The e-Auction was conducted by Synise
Technologies, Pune, on behalf of Prasar Bharati.
Prasar Bharati CEO Jawhar Sircar had said earlier
this month that the aim was to reach the target
of 97 channels by October-end and 125 by
March-end.
The participation amount given by the channels
had been Rs 1.5 crore which was deposited in
advance along with processing fee of Rs 10,000
(non-refundable).
Applicants also deposited a demand draft of Rs
5,500 as registration amount (mandatory)
favouring Synise Technologies, payable at Pune
at the time of submission of the application.
Prasar Bharati sources said that the demand
drafts of unsuccessful bidders were to be returned
within a week after the e-auction process was
completed.
 
Six FTA channels fatten up DD’s DTH purse by Rs 23 crore

The e-auction for six slots on DD Free Dish, the free-to-air (FTA) direct-to-home (DTH) service from public broadcaster Prasar Bharati, has fetched over Rs 22.8 crore (Rs 228 million).

As per industry sources, six channels— Star Utsav, Zee Anmol, Rishtey (Viacom18), B4U Music, News Nation and Big Magic—shelled out anywhere between Rs 3.8 crore (Rs 38 million) and Rs 5 crore (Rs 50 million) for a place on the FTA platform.

“In the current scenario, where it has only 60 frequencies, DD Free Dish presents a lucrative proposition, at this price. It has 12–14 million subscribers, and the quality FTA channels are very few. Thus, the chance of viewing contribution is very high,” explained a top executive of a FTA channel.

In the 14th e-auction, Free Dish had called for bidding for six slots, as its annual contracts with six channels—Star Utsav, Big Magic, P7 News, Cinema TV, News Nation and Zee Anmol—were expiring on 15 August.

Viacom18’s Rishtey, which was launched in December last year, was available on an empty frequency, thus it also went for auction.

The next round of auctions is expected in October.

Free Dish, primarily known as DD Direct+, was launched in December 2004 with 33 channels. At present, it carries 59 TV channels along with 22 radio channels.

Out of the total bouquet, 21 channels are owned by Doordarshan while 38 are private channels. Category wise, Free Dish offers 27 general entertainment channels (GECs), 14 news and current affairs channels, five religious channels, four movie channels, three music and three education channels, two Parliament channels and one sports channel.
 
3-5 crores dont matter much, to these wealthy chnl brands. :k
 
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