Prasar Bharati, India’s public service broadcaster on Thursday announced that three new channels secured a slot on its DD Free Dish platform. The broadcaster announced that the three channels that secured its slots on the 47th e-auction will be allotted slots for the period between September 1, 2020 to March 31, 2021. The development is on the heels of the public service broadcaster in early August announcing the addition of two new channels on its DD Free Dish platform, India’s only free Direct-to-Home (DTH) service. Further, it was announced in late June that 15 channels secured slots through the 46th e-auction held by the broadcaster.
Prasar Bharati Adds Three New Channels to its DD Free Dish Platform
Prasar Bharati on Thursday announced that ANB News, Aryan TV National and News India 24x7 have secured slots on the DD Free Dish platform. The 47th e-auction is said to have been held on Wednesday, August 26, 2020.
ANB News, a Punjab based Hindi news channel is available on various platforms including Tata Sky and Airtel Digital TV. Aryan TV National, Bihar based Hindi news channel was earlier part of multiple DTH platforms including DD Free Dish. Further, News India 24x7, launched in 2014 is a Rajasthan based Hindi news channel with a presence on multiple platforms including DTH services like Tata Sky.
It has to be noted that the public service broadcaster had earlier invited applications for the allotment of vacant MPEG-4 slots on DD Free Dish in early August. Prasar Bharati had said that the bidding in the e-auction is open to all genre channels at a base reserve price of Rs 50.60 lakhs. It was said that the successful bidders were required to make payments in five monthly installments. Further, the channels were also required to pay a non-refundable processing fee of Rs 25,000 and a participation fee of Rs 1.25 lakhs.
Prasar Bharati Added Over 20 Channels Since June
In early June, Prasar Bharati announced that five major general entertainment channels (GEC) including Star Utsav and Colors Rishtey would make a reentry into the DD Free Dish platform. Further, the broadcaster in late June said that 15 channels including four devotional and 11 news channels were selected through the 46th e-auction.
