News Leader, TV7 Bharat and PTC Simran win MPEG-4 slots on DD Free Dish

NEW DELHI: The free-to-air television shelf on DD Free Dish is getting three new additions. Prasar Bharati has awarded three vacant MPEG-4 slots to News Leader, TV7 Bharat and PTC Simran following its 102nd mid-year e-auction.

The slots have been allocated for six months, from 1 October 2026 to 31 March 2027, according to the auction results released by Prasar Bharati.

The auction was conducted as part of the public broadcaster’s periodic allocation of vacant MPEG-4 capacity on DD Free Dish, India’s free-to-air direct-to-home platform.

Prasar Bharati invited applications under its E-auction Methodology 2025, with the available capacity divided into five categories based on channel genre and language.

G1 covered news and current affairs channels, while G2 was designated for non-news channels. Regional-language channels were divided into R1, R2 and R3 categories.

R1 covered Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam channels. Punjabi, Marathi, Gujarati, Bengali and Odia channels fell under R2, while R3 covered other regional languages listed in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution, excluding Hindi and Urdu.

The auction notice set the highest reserve prices for the two general categories. G1 slots had a starting bid of Rs 39.83 lakh, while G2 slots carried a reserve price of Rs 36.40 lakh.

R2 had a starting price of Rs 21.56 lakh, while R3 and R1 had reserve prices of Rs 3.31 lakh and Rs 3 lakh respectively.

The methodology also allowed bidders from certain categories to compete for slots in other categories, subject to specified conditions.

G1 bidders could compete across G1, G2, R2, R1 and R3, while G2 bidders could bid for G2, R2, R1 and R3. R2 bidders could compete for R2, R1 and R3, and R3 bidders could bid for R3 and R1. R1 bidding remained restricted to R1 bidders.

The latest auction also comes with detailed documentation requirements for broadcasters seeking regional-language slots.

Operational channels were required to provide documentary evidence showing their presence on an MSO or DTH platform, along with details supporting their declared genre and language.

Applicants could also submit evidence from government and regulatory bodies, including the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and TRAI, as well as television rating agencies such as BARC.

The auction conditions require channels to predominantly carry programming in their declared genre and language. Prasar Bharati defines predominantly as 75 per cent of content, while the declared genre and language content cannot fall below 60 per cent of the channel’s total monthly programming.

Channels found to be breaching their declared genre or language can face a review of broadcast recordings and a subsequent show-cause notice. Persistent or established violations can ultimately lead to discontinuation from DD Free Dish.

News Leader, TV7 Bharat and PTC Simran will now join the DD Free Dish channel line-up for the six-month allocation period.

The successful bidders must comply with Prasar Bharati’s payment, technical and carriage conditions. This includes signing the prescribed agreement within 15 days of receiving the Letter of Allotment and making payments according to the stipulated schedule.

The channels must pay the first instalment of the carriage fee before being placed on DD Free Dish. They also need to provide the required technical equipment and satellite parameters to Doordarshan’s DTH station at Todapur, New Delhi, before placement.

The auction conditions also prescribe an annual interest rate of 14.5 per cent on overdue payments, along with provisions for forfeiture and discontinuation in cases of persistent payment defaults.

With the latest allocation, Prasar Bharati continues to use periodic e-auctions to monetise vacant DD Free Dish capacity while bringing more channels into India’s free-to-air television ecosystem.