Prasar Bharati has extended the deadline for submissions to take part in the e-auction of vacant MPEG2 slots on Doordarshan FreeDish to May 15 and, therefore, the actual biddings will start May 19.

The successful bidders will get a slot on FreeDish for the period May 28, 2025 to March 31, 2026, an advisory from Prasar Bharati stated, though no reason was furnished for extending the deadline.

It said that the terms and conditions would remain the same as announced before.

Only satellite channels permitted and licensed by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) would be allowed to participate in the e-auction, including international public broadcasters.

Broadcasters desirous of allotment of slot on DD FreeDish would also be required to provide “clear and unambiguous proof” in support of genre and language classification of the channel. In case of lack of clarity, ambiguity or conflicting infrmation, applications will be deemed ineligible.

Change of name and or logo of a channel placed on DD FreeDish would be allowed subject to necessary permissions from MIB.

DD FreeDish is much sought after by FTA broadcasters as it gives their channels a wide reach into rural and far-flung areas of India. A new report released earlier this year by FICCI-EY put the number of FreeDish subscribers at over 49 million.

“We estimate that free TV, on the back of Prasar Bharati’s (Doordarshan) FreeDish satellite service, grew in 2024 to reach around 49 million homes,” stated the FICCI-EY report titled ‘Shape the Future: Indian Media & Entertainment is Scripting a New Story’, which was released in Mumbai on March 27, adding that the subscriber base is expected to expand to 53 million by 2027.

As of December 2024, DD FreeDish, the FTA DTH service of the Indian public broadcaster, hosted 179 channels, including 37 of Doordarshan’s, 12 e-Vidya channels and 33 Swayam Prabha channels, apart from delivering All India Radio (Akashvani)’s audio programming content of 25 satellite radio channels.