Public and national outreach to the masses across India through television has received a tremendous boost with the DD FreeDish platform. Staying true to its public service mandate, Prasar Bharati’s FreeDish had stood out in serving the people during the pandemic by enabling massive public outreach and dissemination through its platform.

While the traditional education system struggled due to the pandemic, DD FreeDish had then come to the rescue by providing a platform for multiple educational channels, thus ensuring continuing education to students across India, the network said in a statement.

Recent viewership data has further revealed the central role being played by FreeDish as a platform for public and national outreach through television across India.

Of the universe of TV viewership for ‘Pariksha Pe Charcha 2022’, 33 percent of the viewers watched the event on various TV channels available on the FreeDish platform, an official statement from the pubcaster claimed.

It is to be noted that several industry estimates have pegged the installed base of FreeDish at around 20 percent of the total TV households in India. Further underlining the importance of DD FreeDish for national outreach is the fact that 26 percent of the viewers of the Republic Day Parade 2022 viewed it on various channels available on FreeDish.

Initiated by the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led NDA government in early 2000s, FreeDish, then known as DD Direct Plus, was subsequently launched in 2004. After being revamped during the Narendra Modi-led NDA government era, the platform saw rapid growth in recent years.

Over the past seven years, since 2015, the subscription base of FreeDish has expanded significantly by more than 100 percent. According to the recent FICCI-EY 2022 report, FreeDish has emerged as the largest platform in the TV distribution industry with a reach of more than 43 million households.

Prasar Bharati’s FreeDish is the only free-to-air DTH service where the viewer doesn’t have to pay a monthly subscription fee. It only requires a one-time investment of about Rs. 2000 for purchase of the FreeDish set-top box and antenna.

The current channel line-up on FreeDish includes a total of 167 TV channels and 48 radio channels, including 91 Doordarshan TV channels (comprising 51 co-branded educational channels) and 76 private TV channels.