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

Prasar Bharati has awarded three vacant MPEG-4 slots on its DD Free Dish platform following its 102nd mid-year e-auction, with News Leader, TV7 Bharat and PTC Simran emerging as the successful channels.

The auction covers the six-month period from October 1, 2026 to March 31, 2027, according to the results released by Prasar Bharati.

The successful channels are News Leader, TV7 Bharat and PTC Simran. 

The auction was part of Prasar Bharati's mid-year allocation of vacant MPEG-4 capacity on DD Free Dish, India's free-to-air direct-to-home platform. The public broadcaster had invited applications for the auction under its E-auction Methodology 2025, with the available capacity divided into five categories based on genre and language.

The categories included G1 for news and current affairs channels, G2 for non-news channels, and R1, R2 and R3 for regional-language channels. Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam channels were classified under R1, while Punjabi, Marathi, Gujarati, Bengali and Odia were placed under R2. Other regional languages listed in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution, excluding Hindi and Urdu, were covered under R3.

The auction notice had set the highest reserve prices for the two general categories. The starting bid for a G1 slot was ₹39.83 lakh, while G2 carried a reserve price of ₹36.40 lakh. R2 had a starting price of ₹21.56 lakh, compared with ₹3.31 lakh for R3 and ₹3 lakh for R1.

The methodology also allowed bidders from certain categories to compete for slots in other categories, subject to prescribed conditions. G1 bidders could bid across G1, G2, R2, R1 and R3, while G2 bidders could compete for G2, R2, R1 and R3 slots. R2 bidders could bid for R2, R1 and R3, while R3 bidders could compete for R3 and R1. R1 bidding was restricted to R1 bidders.

Tighter scrutiny of language and genre

Prasar Bharati had also tightened the documentation requirements for broadcasters seeking regional slots, requiring evidence to establish the declared language and genre of their channels.

Operational channels were required to provide documentary evidence of their presence on an MSO or DTH platform, along with details of the genre and language under which they were being distributed. Applicants could also submit supporting evidence from government or regulatory bodies, including the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and TRAI, as well as television rating agencies such as BARC.

The auction conditions required channels to predominantly carry programming in their declared genre and language. Prasar Bharati defined predominantly as 75% of content, while also stipulating that the declared genre and language content should not fall below 60% of the channel's total monthly content.

Channels found violating their declared genre or language could face review of their broadcast recordings, followed by a show-cause notice. Prasar Bharati could ultimately discontinue a channel from DD Free Dish if the prescribed conditions were not met.

Three channels join DD Free Dish carriage

The addition of News Leader, TV7 Bharat and PTC Simran comes as Prasar Bharati continues to use periodic e-auctions to allocate vacant capacity on DD Free Dish.

Successful bidders are required to comply with the payment, technical and carriage conditions prescribed in the auction notice. These include signing the prescribed agreement within 15 days of receiving the Letter of Allotment and making payments according to the schedule specified by Prasar Bharati.

The auction conditions also provide for 14.5% annual interest on overdue payments, with provisions for forfeiture and discontinuation in cases of persistent payment defaults.

Successful channels have to pay the first installment of the carriage fee before being placed on DD Free Dish. They are also required to provide the necessary technical equipment and satellite parameters to Doordarshan's DTH station at Todapur, New Delhi, ahead of placement.