Prasar Bharati sets July 16 e-auction for DD Free Dish MPEG-2 slots

MUMBAI: The race for television’s biggest free-to-air window is back on air. Prasar Bharati has announced its 100th e-auction to allot vacant MPEG-2 slots on the DD Free Dish platform, with bidding scheduled for 16 July for carriage rights running from 23 July 2026 to 31 March 2027.

The mid-year auction will be conducted on a pro-rata basis under the E-auction Methodology 2025, along with amendments notified earlier this year, as the public broadcaster looks to fill vacant capacity on India’s largest free direct-to-home (DTH) platform.

According to the notice issued on 9 July, only satellite television channels holding valid permissions from the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) will be eligible to participate. International public broadcasters licensed by the ministry can also bid for available slots.

Prasar Bharati has divided the auction into five content buckets based on genre and language. Bucket A+ covers Hindi and Urdu general entertainment channels (GECs), while Bucket A includes Hindi and Urdu movie channels. Bucket B comprises Hindi and Urdu music channels, sports channels, Bhojpuri channels and other Hindi and Urdu genres. Bucket C is reserved for Hindi and Urdu news and current affairs channels, while Bucket D includes devotional, spiritual and Ayush channels, Marathi and Punjabi channels, English news channels, and new or relaunched regional language channels recognised under the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution, excluding Hindi and Urdu.

The reserve price has been fixed at Rs 11.22 crore for the opening round in Bucket A+. This will be followed by Rs 9.01 crore for Bucket A, Rs 7.04 crore for Bucket B, Rs 5.63 crore for Bucket C, and Rs 4.87 crore for Bucket D.

Under the auction rules, channels from higher content buckets cannot participate in lower-category rounds once their designated bidding window closes. However, broadcasters from lower buckets are permitted to bid in higher rounds if slots remain vacant.

The auction follows the framework introduced by Prasar Bharati in January 2025 to make DD Free Dish slot allocation more transparent and competitive. The broadcaster periodically conducts such auctions to allocate vacant carriage capacity to private television channels.

For broadcasters, securing a DD Free Dish slot remains strategically significant. The platform reaches millions of free-to-air households, particularly across rural and semi-urban India, making it an important distribution channel for expanding viewership and strengthening advertising revenues, especially in Hindi-speaking and regional television markets.