Prasar Bharati to hold 100th e-auction for DD Free Dish slots on July 16

Prasar Bharati, India's public service broadcaster, has invited applications for the 100th e-auction of vacant MPEG-2 slots on the DD Free Dish direct-to-home (DTH) platform, according to a notice dated July 9, 2026.

The e-auction, to be conducted online, is tentatively scheduled for July 16, 2026 (Thursday), and will allot slots for the period running from July 23, 2026 to March 31, 2027, on a pro-rata basis. The exercise will be carried out in line with the "E-auction Methodology 2025" notified by Prasar Bharati on January 3, 2025, along with a subsequent amendment dated January 9, 2026.

Only satellite television channels licensed by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting will be permitted to bid, and only companies holding valid downlinking permission from the ministry can apply. International public broadcasters licensed by the ministry have also been allowed to participate.

Bucket-wise categorisation and reserve prices

Channels seeking slots have been grouped into five buckets based on genre and language, with bidding to proceed in a fixed sequence and escalating eligibility restrictions at each round:

• Bucket A+ (General Entertainment Channels in Hindi/Urdu): starting reserve price of Rs 11,21,92,000, open to all five buckets (A+, A, B, C, D)
• Bucket A (Movie channels, Hindi/Urdu): Rs 9,00,99,000, open to A, B, C, D
• Bucket B (Music, sports and Bhojpuri channels, and other remaining Hindi/Urdu genres): Rs 7,04,22,000, open to B, C, D
• Bucket C (News & Current Affairs, Hindi/Urdu): Rs 5,62,69,000, open to C, D
• Bucket D (Devotional/Spiritual/Ayush channels, Marathi and Punjabi channels of all genres, English news channels, and yet-to-be-launched regional-language channels under the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution, excluding Hindi and Urdu): Rs 4,86,74,000, open only to Bucket D

Once a bucket has been allotted at a given round, it becomes ineligible to bid in subsequent, lower-priced rounds — for instance, a Bucket A+ channel that wins in round one cannot bid again in the rounds meant for buckets A, B, C or D.

Content and genre compliance

The notice lays down strict requirements on genre and language classification. Broadcasters must submit clear and unambiguous documentary proof of their channel's genre and language; applications with ambiguous or conflicting declarations face summary rejection.

Channels are further required to ensure that at least 75 per cent of their telecast content (excluding permissible advertisements and promos under the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995) is in the declared genre and language — translating to a minimum of 60 per cent of total monthly content. Violations, once detected, will be examined by a duly constituted committee, and defaulting channels may be issued show-cause notices, given a window to apply for a change of genre or language, or face discontinuation from the platform.

Fees and payment

Interested broadcasters must apply online at the Prasar Bharati slots portal (fdslots.prasarbharati.org) and pay a non-refundable processing fee of Rs 25,000. Separately, a participation fee of Rs 1,50,00,000 (Rs 1.5 crore) is payable through Demand Draft or RTGS/NEFT/ECS to Prasar Bharati's designated State Bank of India account in New Delhi.

Physical copies of the demand draft, along with the application acknowledgement, must reach the office of the Assistant Engineer (Platforms) at Doordarshan Bhawan in New Delhi by 3:00 pm on July 15, 2026 — the same deadline set for submission of the online application itself.

Unsuccessful bidders will have their participation fee refunded within three weeks of the results being declared.

Post-auction process

Successful bidders will receive a Letter of Allotment along with a payment schedule, and will be required to sign a formal agreement with Prasar Bharati within 15 days. Payments not made on schedule will attract late-payment interest of 14.5 per cent per annum, with a structured notice process before slots are vacated and fees forfeited in cases of continued default.

Winning channels will also need to provide an IRD (Integrated Receiver Decoder) box with dual IP multicast output and SDI at Doordarshan's DTH station in Todapur, New Delhi, at least a week in advance of going live, along with satellite parameters and other technical details.

Applicants will additionally need to submit an integrity pact, an authorisation letter for their signatory, PAN and GST registration copies, and undertakings on content compliance, among other documents listed in the annexures to the notice.