Prasar Bharati completes mid-cycle DD Free Dish MPEG-4 allocation, allots 10 slots

Prasar Bharati has completed its mid-cycle allocation of vacant MPEG-4 slots on DD Free Dish, awarding carriage capacity to 10 television channels for the remainder of the 2026-27 financial year. The allotments were made through the public broadcaster’s 99th MPEG-4 online e-auction, conducted specifically to fill vacancies that emerged after the completion of the annual slot allocation process earlier this year.

The successful broadcasters include Bharat Express, Republic TV, Vistaar News, Nation 27, News India 24×7, R. Bangla, Living India News, Prag News, Rengoni and RE News. The allotted slots will be available from 5 June 2026 through 31 March 2027, aligning with the current DD Free Dish fiscal cycle. With these additions, the platform further consolidates its position as India’s largest free-to-air DTH service, particularly in the news and regional segments.

This mid-year exercise follows Prasar Bharati’s 97th MPEG-4 annual -auction for FY27, in which 39 channels secured carriage on DD Free Dish for the full financial year. The 99th e-auction was designed to utilise capacity that became available subsequently, ensuring optimal use of the platform’s spectrum resources and keeping transponder utilisation closely aligned with market demand. Applications for the mid-year auction were invited on 19 May, with broadcasters given until 26 May to submit their bids before the e-auction was conducted.

The auction covered vacant slots across multiple categories based on content genre and language. News and current affairs channels competed under the G1 category, while non-news broadcasters were grouped under G2, which includes general entertainment, movies, music and other FTA genres. Regional broadcasters were accommodated through three separate language buckets: R1 covered channels in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam; R2 included Punjabi, Marathi, Gujarati, Bengali and Odia; and R3 catered to other regional languages listed in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution, excluding Hindi, Urdu and languages already covered under R1 and R2. The structure reflects DD Free Dish’s continued emphasis on maintaining a balanced mix of national and regional programming while extending access across linguistic markets.

Ahead of the auction, Prasar Bharati prescribed reserve prices for each category. The reserve price for the G1 News and Current Affairs category was set at ₹61.65 lakh, while the G2 non-news category carried a reserve price of ₹60 lakh. Among regional language categories, reserve prices were fixed at ₹31.65 lakh for R1, ₹34.83 lakh for R2 and ₹49 lakh for R3, signalling differentiated pricing based on expected demand, reach and audience potential in each segment.

The latest auction underlines the continuing strategic importance of DD Free Dish for broadcasters seeking mass, low-cost reach into free-to-air television homes across India. For news and regional channels in particular, presence on the platform remains a key component of audience-expansion strategies, especially in markets where free television consumption remains strong. With the fresh allotments now completed, the 10 successful channels will join the existing DD Free Dish line-up for the balance of the 2026-27 cycle, further deepening the platform’s content offering.