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Prasar Bharati to increase DD Free Dish slots next year

Prasar Bharati is set to increase DD Free Dish slots next year, with the number of slots to go up by 40. The pubcaster is getting a new transponder to increase the number of slots as the demand remains high.

Prasar Bharati has invited applications for allotment of vacant MPEG-2 slots of DD Free Dish DTH Platform for the period from June 1, 2024 to March 31, 2025 through the 77th online e-auction process to be held on May 28, 2024.

In the last online auction of DD Free Dish MPEG-2 slots in February 2024, 64 slots were sold for a total of approximately Rs 1157 crore, marking an 8 percent increase in revenue compared to last year’s auction of Rs 1071 crore. The auction was a clear indicator of the growing popularity of Prasar Bharati’s free-to-air DTH service.

It marked the second consecutive year of revenue growth for Prasar Bharati from the sale of MPEG-2 slots, following a significant 66 percent increase in 2023 compared to the previous year.

Free Dish reach
The e-auction, which ran from February 19, 2024, sold slots for the period April 1, 2024, to March 31, 2025. DD Free Dish boasts a reach of 43-45 million households, making it a significant platform for broadcasters. While addressing the audience at the 2024 FICCI FRAMES, Gaurav Dwivedi, CEO, Prasar Bharti said that the number of television homes using DD FreeDish will increase from 45 million at present to around 50-60 million in the next four to five years.

In a previous interview with Storyboard18 in 2023, Dwivedi had said, “We are in the process of getting additional transponders so that the range can be further increased and there is more bandwidth available and hopefully from the next year we should be able to offer even a greater variety of content to the viewers by allowing a larger number of channels to come.”

DD Free Dish’s expansive reach brings a heterogeneous mix in audience profile combining both urban and rural areas, making it a must-have platform for broadcasters targeting national advertisers with a wide target audience.

E-auction methodology
In January 2024, Prasar Bharati had announced amendments to the e-auction methodology for allotment of Slots of DD Free Dish Platform to private satellite channels initially notified on January 27, 2023.

The key changes include replacing “AllIndiaRadio” with “Aakashwani” and adjusting the categorisation of channels in different buckets.

According to the revised methodology, Bucket A+ will now feature GEC (Hindi/Urdu) channels, Bucket A will host movie (Hindi/Urdu) channels, and Bucket B will include music (Hindi/Urdu), sports (Hindi/Urdu), Bhojpuri language, and other remaining Hindi/Urdu genres.

Bucket C is dedicated to news and current affairs (Hindi/Urdu), and Bucket D encompasses devotional/spiritual/Ayush, all genres of Marathi and Punjabi Channels, and news and current affairs (English). Additionally, Bucket R1 will cover languages not represented in other buckets.

The content declaration process for broadcasters had been refined too, with a new emphasis on ensuring 75 percent of the channel’s content aligns with the declared genre and language. Broadcasters will need to maintain this ratio, excluding advertisements and promos.

Prasar Bharati also provided an illustrative example for a mid-year e-auction, detailing the pro-rata reserve prices for vacant MPEG-2 slots and the round-wise starting reserve prices for participating buckets.

These amendments aimed to streamline the slot allotment process, providing clearer guidelines for broadcasters participating in the DD Free Dish Platform’s e-auction.

What is DD Free Dish?
Prasar Bharati started the DTH service of DDDirect+ in December 2004, which was re-named as DD Free Dish on August 27, 2013. Initially the coverage of DD Free Dish was limited to Himachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttaranchal, North East Region and Gujarat i.e., where the percentage of TV broadcasting services coverage was below national average.

At present, coverage of DD Free Dish services is throughout the Indian territory except Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Prasar Bharati does not charge any monthly or annual subscription fee from viewers for viewing DD Free Dish service. For availing DD Free Dish services, one requires only a small one-time investment in purchasing of Dish Receive System containing Set-Top-Box and small sized dish antenna. The unique free to air model has made DD Free Dish the largest DTH platform. StoryBoard18

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