Keeping in mind the larger interest of the broadcast industry in mind, particularly those of the distribution platforms and LCOs, country’s Hindi pay general entertainment channels (GECs) are likely not to actively participate in the auctioning process of slots on Doordarshan’s FTA DTH service FreeDish.

Rumours have been doing the rounds for a few days of such a move being underway, but there’s nothing official about it, though.

Prasar Bharati, DD’s parent, had invited applications for allotment of MPEG-2 slots on FreeDish for the period  April 2022 to March 2023 through the 4th annual e-auction process to be held from March 7,2022.

At least two people familiar with this stand of the pay TV broadcasters admitted that such a move was a result of criticism from distribution platforms and LCOs that their businesses got impacted when Hindi entertainment pay channels were offered free on FreeDish, while carrying a price tag for other distributors, including pay DTH platforms like Tata Play, Airtel Digital, Dish TV and Sun Digital.

“The pay Hindi GECs most likely not to actively bid for slots of FreeDish this time round. This has been done keeping in mind the larger interest and good of the broadcast industry, including our friends in the distribution industry,” a senior executive of a broadcasting company said, declining to be named.

The bone of contention is that while pay channels bid handsomely for limited slots on FreeDish and were, in effect, offered free to the consumers of the free-to-air (FTA) DTH platform, the same channels were offered to the subscribers of other distributing agencies at a certain price. The LCOs, MSOs and pay DTH platforms complained this unlevelled the playing field and upset their business plans.

Though there’s no official figure available, industry estimates put DD FreeDish subscriber base at around 45 million, which is much bigger than the cumulative subscriber base of all the pay DTH platforms.

To access FreeDish, a subscriber needs to make a one-time investment of approximately Rs. 2,000-3,000 on buying a dish antennae and a set-top-box.

Meanwhile, FreeDish has kept a reserve price of Rs. 15 crore (Rs. 150 million) for slots pertaining to Hindi GEC channels, while the same for Hindi movie channels is Rs. 12 crore (Rs. 120 million).

Last time round, there was stiff competition in the Hindi GEC and news channels categories and slots were finally awarded at a higher price, generating good revenue for DD.

Only satellite channels licensed by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting are allowed to participate in the e-auction either directly or through their authorized distributor partners.

In case the applicant company is other than the licensee, the document/agreement signed between the license holder and applicant-company, authorizing the applicant/bidder for distribution of the channel and bidding on behalf of the licensee, must be submitted.

International public broadcasters licensed by the MIB can also participate in the e-auction.