India’s public broadcaster Prasar Bharati yesterday invited applications for the allotment of vacant MPEG-2 slots on the DD Free Dish platform for the period from 1st April 2021 to 31st March 2022. The allotment will be done through the 3rd annual e-auction process or the 52nd e-auction which will be tentatively held from 22nd February, 2021.
The slots will be allotted in accordance with the policy guidelines for the allotment of DD Free Dish slots notified on 15th January 2019 and as amended that was notified on 1st November 2019. The auction will only be open for satellite channels licensed by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting for downlinking in India along with interntaional broadcasters permitted by the MIB.
The starting reserve price in Bucket A+, Bucket A, Bucket, Bucket C, Bucket D, and Bucket R1 will be Rs 15 crore, Rs 12 crore, Rs 10 crore, Rs 7 crore, Rs 6crore, and Rs 3 crore respecitvely.
Bucket A+ will cater to all Hindi GEC channels, Bucket A will cater to all Hindi Movie channels, Bucket B will cater to all Hindi Music channels, Hindi Sports channels, Bhojpuri GEC channels, Bhojpuri Movies channels, and Hindi Teleshopping channels, Bucket C will cater to all Hindi News and Current Affairs channels, English News and Current Affairs channels, and Punjabi News and Current Affairs channels, Bucket D will cater to all other remaining genre/language channels and regional teleshopping channels while BucketR1 will cater to devotional channels including spiritual and Aayush channels.
