I&B Ministry
FM Phase III Day 5: Delhi crosses Rs 100 crore as total bids touch Rs 714 crore
NEW DELHI: Even as twenty rounds of FM Phase III e-auction ended with four more rounds today, the provisional winning price for one channel in Delhi crossed the Rs 100 crore mark.
The bidding for this one channel in Delhi got Provisional winning price of Rs 105.23 crore, which is more than three times its reserve price of Rs 31.42 crore.
At the close of the fifth day of bidding, 80 channels in 55 cities became provisionally winning channels with cumulative provisional winning price of around Rs 714 crore against their aggregate reserve price of about Rs 391 crore.
Thus the summation of provisional winning prices exceeded the total reserve price of the first batch by about Rs 163.48 crore or 29.71 per cent. The total reserve price of the first batch of 135 channels in the existing 69 cities is Rs 550.18 crore.
The fifth day of the e-auction was hectic but there were still no bids in as many as 14 cities though the provisional winning price steadied at the Clock round Price in the other cases.
The Auction began for the fifth day with Auction Activity Requirement set at 80 per cent.
The demand over the price in many cities fell by up to three per cent below the aggregate demand.
The Percentage Price Increment (in INR) applicable for the Next Clock Round was five in the metros of Delhi and Mumbai, and in Bengaluru, Ahmedabad, Guwahati, Rourkela, Jaipur, Kolhapur, Nagpur, Nasik, Patna, and Rajkot and eight per cent in Bhubaneswar.
The highest Provisional winning price – the same as the Clock round price at the start of the twentieth round – was in Delhi – Rs 105.23 crore followed by Mumbai – Rs 82.72 crore with both showing sizeable increase compared to the first three days.
Among cities recording more than Rs 10 crore, it rose sizeably in Bengaluru – Rs 54.58 crore; Ahmedabad – Rs 30.33 crore; Pune – Rs 29.11 crore and Chennai – Rs 29.82 crore and marginally in Chandigarh at Rs 15.92 crore.
Hyderabad at Rs 18 crore, Lucknow at Rs 14 crore and Cochin at Rs 10.21 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.
