I&B Ministry
Day 19: Kohlapur inches towards Rs 10 crore mark in FM Phase III bidding
NEW DELHI: After nineteen days in the bidding for the first batch of FM Phase III cities, Kohlapur with a price of Rs 9.34 crore is now inching towards the Rs 10 crore mark.
Among cities recording more than Rs 10 crore, it rose marginally only in Nasik at Rs 14.66 crore. Moreover cities like Kanpur, Rajkot, Amritsar and Aurangabad are also not far behind.
However, interest appeared to be flagging with the cumulative provisional winning price rising very marginally to touch about Rs 1128 crore at the end of the 76th round on the nineteenth day.
With this, a total of 94 channels in 56 cities became provisional winning channels against their aggregate reserve price of about Rs 459 crore.
Thus the total bids of the provisional winning prices surpassed the cumulative reserve price of the corresponding 94 channels by Rs 669.24 crore or 145.8 per cent.
The cumulative provisional winning price has risen over the total reserve price of the first batch of 135 FM channels in 69 existing cities – Rs 550.18 crore – by Rs 577.92 crore or 105 per cent.
The Auction Activity Requirement rose to 100 per cent after the 59th round on 14 August, after being 90 per cent after the 37th round on 7 August.
As was reported earlier by Indiantelevision.com, despite the slow down, as per Information and Broadcasting Ministry sources, the auction will continue as long as bids are received for any of the 135 channels.
Bids continued to elude thirteen cities for the nineteenth day today, with no takers for channels in 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 the 76th round in Hyderabad.
The Percentage Price Increment (in INR) applicable for the Next Clock Round rose to five each in Guwahati, Shillong and Varanasi but was just one in Jodhpur and Kolhapur.
The provisional winning price in the top three cities reflected no change: Delhi at Rs 1.69.16 crore (for just one channel); Mumbai at Rs 122.81 crore (for two channels); and Bengaluru at Rs 109.25 crore.
Chennai at Rs 53.38 crore, Ahmedabad at Rs 42.68 crore, Pune at Rs 42.03 crore, Jaipur at Rs 28.34 crore, Chandigarh at Rs 19.04 crore, Hyderabad at Rs 18 crore, Patna at Rs 17.89 crore, Cochin at Rs 15.04 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.
