I&B Ministry
Day 17: FM Phase III bidding picks pace; winning price touches Rs 1116 crore
NEW DELHI: Bidding showed mild signs of picking pace as the number of channels being bid for also increased on the day seventeen of the e-auction for the first batch of FM Phase III cities. The cumulative provisional winning price touched about Rs 1116 crore at the end of the 68th round.
With this, a total of 93 channels in 56 cities became provisional winning channels against their aggregate reserve price of about Rs 458 crore.
Thus the summation of provisional winning prices surpassed the cumulative reserve price of the corresponding 92 channels by Rs 657.59 crore or 143.5 per cent.
The cumulative provisional winning price has more than doubled at 102.8 per cent than the total reserve price of Rs 550.18 crore for the first batch of 135 FM channels in 69 existing cities.
The Auction Activity Requirement rose to 100 per cent since 14 August, after being 90 per cent after the 37th round on 7 August.
Information and Broadcasting Ministry sources said the channel allocation stage will continue as long as bids are received for any of the 135 channels.
The thirteen cities for which bids have still not come are Asansol, Gulbarga, Mangalore, Mysore, Puducherry, Rajahmundry, Siliguri, Tiruchy, Tirunveli, Tirupati, Tuticorin, Vijaywada and Warangal.
The demand in most cities fell by up to three per cent and by four per cent below the excess demand at the price in 60th round in Hyderabad.
The Percentage Price Increment (in INR) applicable for the Next Clock Round was just one in Bengaluru, Chandigarh, Cochin, Guwahati, Jodhpur, Kanpur, Mumbai and Nashik.
The highest provisional winning price in Delhi remained the same for the second consecutive day at Rs 169.16 crore (for just one channel), but rose marginally in Mumbai at Rs 122.81 crore (for two channels) while it was static in Bengaluru.
Among cities recording more than Rs 10 crore, it rose marginally in Cochin at Rs 15.04 crore and Nasik at Rs 10.94 crore.
Bengaluru with Rs 109.25 crore, Chennai at Rs 53.38 crore, Ahmedabad at Rs 42.68 crore, Pune at Rs 42.03 crore, Chandigarh at Rs 19.04 crore, Jaipur at Rs 28.34 crore, Hyderabad at Rs 18 crore, Patna at Rs 17.89 crore and Lucknow at Rs 14 crore remained static.
I&B Ministry
Prasar Bharati sets EPG standards for DD Free Dish platform
New specs define 7-day guide, LCN mapping, and device compatibility.
MUMBAI: Your TV guide just got a backstage pass structured, scheduled, and far more in sync. Prasar Bharati has released detailed technical specifications for Electronic Programme Guide (EPG) services on DD Free Dish, laying down a standardised framework for how channels and programme information are organised and delivered. At the core of the update is a defined EPG data structure, covering genre-based categorisation, scheduling formats, and Logical Channel Numbering (LCN). The aim is simple: make navigation less guesswork and more guided experience across the platform’s over 40 million households.
The specifications also introduce a seven-day programme guide window for each channel, alongside clear rules for channel grouping and LCN mapping effectively deciding not just what you watch, but how easily you find it.
On the technical front, the document outlines requirements for Program Specific Information (PSI) and Service Information (SI), including descriptor usage across tables such as PAT, BAT and NIT. It further details service lists and network linkage parameters, giving OEMs and developers a clearer blueprint for integration.
Importantly, the framework is designed to work seamlessly with television sets equipped with in-built satellite tuners, enabling users to access DD Free Dish directly without additional hardware, an incremental but meaningful step towards simplifying access.
The platform will continue to operate on GSAT-15 transponders, using MPEG-4 compression and DVB-S2 transmission standards, ensuring continuity even as the interface evolves.
While largely technical, the move signals a broader push towards standardisation and user-friendly discovery in India’s free-to-air ecosystem because sometimes, the real upgrade isn’t what’s on screen, but how easily you get there.
