Prasar Bharati Invites Bids for MPEG-4 Slots on DD Free Dish

Prasar Bharati has announced its 101st online e-auction for the allotment of vacant MPEG-4 slots on DD Free Dish, inviting eligible private satellite television channels to bid for capacity on India’s largest free-to-air direct-to-home (DTH) platform.

The slots offered through this round will be operational from July 24, 2026, to March 31, 2027, and will be allocated in accordance with the existing DD Free Dish MPEG-4 e-auction policy framework.

Participation is open to private satellite channels holding valid uplinking and downlinking permissions from the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, as well as eligible international public broadcasters.

For the purpose of auction, channels have been categorised based on genre and language. The G1 bucket includes news and current affairs channels, while G2 covers Hindi general entertainment channels. Regional channels have been segmented into R1, R2, and R3 categories.

The auction will be conducted in five rounds. The G1 category will commence with a reserve price of Rs 53.18 lakh, followed by G2 at Rs 48.60 lakh. Among regional categories, reserve prices have been set at Rs 28.78 lakh for R2, Rs 4.41 lakh for R3, and Rs 4 lakh for R1.

Prasar Bharati has emphasised that bidders must submit documentary evidence to substantiate their declared language and genre classification. Applications that are incomplete or contain inconsistent information are liable to rejection.

DD Free Dish continues to serve as a critical distribution platform, particularly for regional and free-to-air broadcasters, offering access to millions of television households across India without subscription fees.
BCS Bureau