DTH
DD Free Dish e-auction: 15 MPEG4 slots sold
MUMBAI: The first annual e-auction for MPEG4 slots on Doordarshan’s FTA DTH platform FreeDish, witnessed intense competition. After robust bidding, a total of 15 MPEG4 slots were successfully sold to channels across genres and languages.
Prasar Bharati CEO Shashi Shekhar Vempati said on Twitter that the slots were being taken at an average price that was nearly eight to nine times the invitational price. “With this overall projected annual revenue from DD Free Dish will cross 400 cr between MPEG2 and MPEG4 slots,” he added.
Vempati added that the new line up of 15 channels will be published on Monday, subject to completion of procedural formalities. He also mentioned that three slots have been reserved for public broadcasting purposes.
Earlier in February, 40 MPEG2 slots were successfully sold under revised guidelines after recommencement of e-auction. Vempati said that the estimated revenue from the sold slots is Rs 395 crore and added that the new channels will be on air from 1 March 2019.
The Prasar Bharati Board gave a green signal to e-auctioning of DTH slots on DD FreeDish in January. The e-auctioning was arbitrarily called off in October 2017. Earlier, FreeDish would conduct the e-auction every couple of months to award vacant channel slots to private broadcasters. The last e-auction was held In July 2017.
While revealing the new policy guidelines, Vempati had said a key consideration factored in was to increase the diversity of content available on FreeDish and to expand its reach across India, especially within the non-Hindi speaking states.
DTH Operator
JC Flowers withdraws NCLT plea against Dish TV over EGM demand
Move eases pressure on DTH firm as long-running shareholder dispute cools
MUMBAI: In a breather for Dish TV India, JC Flowers Asset Reconstruction has withdrawn its petition before the National Company Law Tribunal seeking directions to convene an extraordinary general meeting.
The development was disclosed by Dish TV in a regulatory filing, confirming that the petitioner chose to withdraw the case during a hearing at the Mumbai bench of the tribunal. A detailed order from the bench is still awaited.
The petition, originally filed under Sections 98 to 100 of the Companies Act, 2013, sought to push for an extraordinary general meeting to address governance issues at the company. The case had its roots in a prolonged shareholder tussle dating back to 2021, when Yes Bank, then the largest shareholder, was at odds with the promoter group led by Subhash Chandra over board reconstitution.
JC Flowers had stepped into the picture as an assignee of Yes Bank’s stressed assets, effectively continuing the legal push initiated earlier. The withdrawal now signals a pause, if not a closure, to that chapter of dispute.
While the reasons behind the withdrawal have not been formally detailed, the move reduces immediate legal pressure on Dish TV, which has been navigating both operational and regulatory challenges in recent years.
For now, the focus shifts back to the company’s business fundamentals, even as the legal dust settles, at least temporarily, on one of its more closely watched shareholder battles.
