As Prasar Bharati readies its annual DD Free Dish slot auctions for FY26, typically held around February–March, to allocate capacity from April 1, broadcasting industry’s concerns around auction design, pricing dynamics and transparency are once again coming to the fore. Broadcasters say long-standing issues related to limited capacity disclosure, bidding structures and sharply rising slot prices are likely to resurface unless the upcoming auction framework addresses these structural complaints.
Broadcasters argue that despite DD Free Dish being positioned as a public-service platform, its auction architecture increasingly resembles a revenue-maximisation exercise that routinely pushes slot prices to Rs 20 crore and beyond, effectively pricing out smaller and mid-sized players. The core grievance, they say, lies in undisclosed slot numbers, capped transponder capacity and a restrictive auction framework that fuels aggressive bidding rather than broad-based participation.
“DD Free Dish today carries barely around 75 channels. The government owns the satellite, it owns the spectrum, it owns the platform, so where exactly is the constraint?” said a senior broadcaster, speaking off the record.
“If capacity is expanded meaningfully, say even to a few hundred slots, carriage costs would naturally come down to Rs 1–2 crore, making the platform accessible to many more broadcasters. Instead, capacity is being artificially restricted to keep prices inflated. What else would you call this, if not hoarding?”
Industry bodies have repeatedly flagged that the current model runs counter to the stated objective of Free Dish, to ensure equitable access to free-to-air television and wider dissemination of content, especially in price-sensitive and rural markets. Instead, broadcasters argue, the escalating auction prices are forcing channels with annual content budgets of Rs 10–15 crore to compete in auctions where entry costs alone cross Rs 20 crore.
Concerns have also been sharpened by memories of earlier auctions, particularly the last MPEG-2 round, which saw what broadcasters describe as “bucket-level confusion” and last-minute changes. “On day one, bidders committed huge sums, only to later discover that certain buckets like the R1 bucket were being cancelled. That kind of uncertainty fundamentally undermines confidence in the process,” said another broadcaster.
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In a bid to address some of these long-standing issues, Prasar Bharati initiated a stakeholder consultation last July on the DD Free Dish e-auction methodology, seeking feedback on auction design, slot allocation and bidding processes. The move prompted detailed submissions from industry bodies, which said the exercise was timely but underscored that the existing framework suffers from structural gaps around transparency, informational symmetry and procedural certainty.
Responding to the consultation, the News Broadcasters & Digital Association (NBDA) said that for any auction to be considered fair and competitive, bidders must have visibility into the total number of slots on offer, bucket-wise availability before each round, and a clear list of eligible applicants—disclosures that have historically been absent. “A fair and efficient auction requires that all participants have access to the same crucial information,” NBDA said, cautioning that opacity around slot availability forces broadcasters to bid in an environment of uncertainty, often leading to speculative and inflated pricing.
The association also flagged that the current methodology creates a sense of artificial urgency by limiting slots, particularly for news channels, leading to sharp bid disparities among similarly placed broadcasters. NBDA reiterated that mid-auction changes or rejections, such as those witnessed in previous rounds, undermine confidence in the process and violate principles of procedural fairness. It further argued that treating news channels purely as commercial entities, despite their public-interest role, while keeping reserve prices high and capacity constrained, runs counter to Prasar Bharati’s statutory mandate of ensuring access to diverse and credible information.
Not just NDDA or IBDF, in recent months, multiple industry associations have formally written to Prasar Bharati calling for greater transparency in the e-auction methodology, clearer disclosure of available slots and a relook at capacity planning. They have argued that a public broadcaster should not be engineering scarcity on its own platform, particularly when satellite capacity constraints are not convincingly established.
“Free Dish is supposed to be a welfare platform. When a public-service broadcaster starts extracting Rs20 crore-plus from channels to merely exist on the platform, it raises serious questions about intent,” said a senior executive at a news network.
“Is there really a bandwidth problem when new satellites are being launched? Or is scarcity being maintained by design,” they added.
With the next round of auctions imminent, broadcasters say the industry is now watching closely to see whether Prasar Bharati meaningfully addresses these long-standing concerns or whether the upcoming auction will once again repeat what they describe as the blind spots of previous years.
Additional e-auctions for vacant slots are expected to continue through the year on a pro-rata basis, but broadcasters caution that without structural changes to capacity disclosure and auction design, incremental fixes will do little to resolve the deeper imbalance.
As one executive put it, “The question is simple: will Free Dish finally move towards fairness and transparency, or will it continue to operate a model that systematically favours deep pockets over diversity?”