There was some hectic action in auction for shelf space on Doordarshan FreeDish amongst news channels, as per information available from the industry.

Zee News paid Rs.13.55 crore for a slot, while Times Navbharat coughed up Rs. 13.40 crore.

Earlier, as reported by Indianbroadcastingworld.com, FreeDish e-auction saw intense competition among leading Hindi news channels where the Adani Group-owned NDTV India secured the top slot with a bid of Rs.14.35 crore, followed closely by Republic Bharat at Rs.14.20 crore, News18 India with Rs. 14.10. crore, and ABP News also made a strong bid, securing the fourth position with Rs.14.00 crore. (https://www.indianbroadcastingworld.com/ndtv-india-republic-bharat-slot/)

The annual auction, conducted by Prasar Bharati, India’s public broadcaster, plays a crucial role in determining which private broadcasters get access to DD FreeDish, the country’s only free-to-air DTH platform, which has over 40 million subscriber base.

 The fierce bidding underscores the growing significance of FreeDish, particularly in rural and semi-urban markets where millions rely on free television services.

However, in certain quarters of the M&E industry there is a criticism that FreeDish operates in a regulation-free environment, unlike other distribution platforms like MSOs, LCOs and DTH operators, which creates a non-level playing field in favour of the FTA platform.