DTH
Excel videos line up Oscar Film Festival on DVD
MUMBAI: With the 79th Annual Academy Awards around the corner Excel Home Videos in association with Twentieth Century Fox, Walt Disney Home Entertainment and Merchant Ivory Production has launched an Oscar DVD Film Festival.
The fest titled ‘Oscar Fever 2007’ will continue from 22 Feb tol 15 March. It will feature 46 movies including The Sound of Music, Aliens, The French Connection, Gentleman’s Agreement, Titanic, Tora!Tora!Tora!, Braveheart, Sideways, Great Expectations, Miracle On 34th Street, The Abyss, Walk the line, Boys Don’t Cry, The Full Monty, Independence Day, The Longest Day, Moulin Rouge, Mrs DoubtFire, The Omen, Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid, Mary Poppins, Cold Mountain, Finding Nemo, The Little Mermaid, The Chronicles of Narnia, Pearl Harbor, Dick Tracy and, Howards End.
Says Excel Home Videos managing director M.N Kapasi, “This is the first time in Indian Home Entertainment that multiple Hollywood Studios have come together for a Movie Extravaganza. This is a great opportunity for cinema buffs to expand their collection and also upgrade their VCDs to high end DVDs.”
The Festival will feature a unique reward point system with movies with more Oscars carrying higher points. There are also opportunities for consumers to win free DVDs.
The other movies in the fray include Master & Commander, My Cousin Vinny, Patton, Wall Street, Speed, All that Jazz, Cocoon, Planet Of The Apes, Road To Perdition, The Fly, Hello Dolly, How Green Was My Valley, The Incredibles, Tarzan, Toy Story, Monsters Inc, Pocahontas, Colour of Money among others
DTH
DD Free Dish e-auction revenue dips to Rs 642 crore as slot sales fall
Revenue dips as revised norms reshape bidding in 94th round
NEW DELHI: Prasar Bharati’s DD Free Dish has closed its 8th annual, and 94th overall, e-auction for MPEG-2 slots with total collections of Rs 642 crore for the period April 1, 2026 to March 31, 2027.
That is lower than last year’s Rs 780 crore haul, with 55 slots sold compared with 61 in FY25–26. The softer topline reflects both a slimmer inventory and a recalibrated auction framework.
This was the first auction conducted after amendments to the e-auction methodology, including tighter eligibility norms and a revised reserve price structure for MPEG-2 slots. The stated aim was greater transparency and more serious participation. The immediate outcome appears to be more measured bidding in certain categories.
Day one set the tone. Eight slots were sold, six in the premium Bucket A+ and two in Bucket A. The strong early action in A+, which typically houses Hindi GECs and movie channels, reaffirmed the enduring appeal of mass Hindi programming on the platform.
Among the broadcasters securing slots in the initial rounds were Zee Entertainment Enterprises, Sony Pictures Networks India, Viacom18’s Colors network, Sun Network and Shemaroo Entertainment. Their continued presence signals that, despite the pull of digital platforms, Free Dish remains a strategic must have for legacy networks chasing scale in price sensitive markets.
The final bouquet of 55 channels leans heavily towards Hindi news, movies, devotional fare, Bhojpuri and regional programming.
In Hindi news, familiar heavyweights such as Aaj Tak, ABP News, India TV, News18 India, Republic Bharat and Zee News made the cut. Entertainment and movie offerings include Colors Rishtey, Star Utsav, Dangal TV, Sony Pal, Shemaroo TV, Goldmines, B4U Movies and Zee Biskope. Devotional viewers will find Aastha, Sanskar and Sadhna Gold among the selected channels.
Regional representation includes Sun Marathi, Fakt Marathi, PTC Punjabi and GTC Punjabi.
Equally telling were the absences. Broadcasters such as Big Magic, Filamchi Bhojpuri, India News, Bharat Express, Movieplex Maithili, TV9 Marathi, Shemaroo Marathibana, Zee Chitra Mandir and Satsang did not participate. The pullback is particularly visible across Marathi, Bhojpuri, Maithili and spiritual programming. Industry observers point to the revised reserve prices, tighter eligibility norms and a reassessment of commercial viability as possible factors.
DD Free Dish continues to beam into over 40 million homes, largely in rural and semi urban India. For advertisers and broadcasters alike, it offers efficient access to Bharat markets where pay TV penetration remains uneven and OTT subscriptions are limited.
The moderation in revenue this year may be read as a pause rather than a retreat. Fewer slots, a reworked auction playbook and evolving broadcaster strategies have clearly shaped outcomes. Yet premium Hindi entertainment retains its pull, and the platform’s mass reach remains hard to ignore.
As the FY26–27 line-up settles in, the mix of winners and walkaways will define the private satellite channel landscape on DD Free Dish for the year ahead.
