News broadcasters call for more transparency in DD Free Dish slot allotment process
Industry players claim that non-disclosure of vacant slots on DD Free Dish leads to irrational bids by news channels
Prasar Bharati's auction process for slots on its free DTH platform DD Free Dish is creating some distress among news broadcasters. News channels have claimed that Prasar Bharati is not being transparent in disclosing the number of slots that are available for auction, which is leading to an inflation in the bidding prices.
According to a top official with a leading news network, DD Free Dish's bucket system has led to an “artificial scarcity” of slots for news channels. The platform has six buckets with varying reserve prices for different genres.
The reserve price for the news genre is half that of the entertainment genre. Despite that, the news channels end up paying more than entertainment channels due to an intense bidding war. News channel executives say that non-disclosure of vacant slots on DD Free Dish leads to irrational bids by news channels.
"DD Free Dish should ideally have separate reserve prices for pay and free-to-air news channels. Secondly, all the slots should be opened up for bidding for all channels. It doesn't make any sense to have a bucket system. DD Free Dish has nothing to lose because they will get a fair value for the slots. They should also follow a strict policy of allotting slots only through a competitive bidding process," the CEO of a leading news network said on the condition of anonymity.
He also said that news channels are paying way more than GEC and movie channels despite earning a fraction of the ad revenue that these channels earn. "We are paying more for DD Free Dish slots than entertainment channels even though they earn more ad revenue than us. It's high time that the Prasar Bharati revisited its auction policy."
Prasar Bharati had earned Rs 731.34 crore from the sale of 57 MPEG-2 slots in March last year. This was a growth of 23% over the Rs 594.25 crore that it had collected from the sale of 53 MPEG-2 slots in March 2020. As reported earlier by exchange4media, the Hindi movie genre made the highest bid at Rs 194.85 crore as a category while the single highest bid from an individual channel had come from the news genre at Rs 22.05 crore.
The news broadcasters have expressed their disappointment and claimed that the public broadcaster is being unfair to the news industry. "The bid in the news genre goes up to Rs 18- 22 crore from individual channels whereas the movies genre slots are sold for a maximum of Rs 10-12 crore. There is no level playing field. The auction process is biased towards the news genre,” said a senior executive of a leading news channel.”
He further pointed out that the number of slots that are available for news is less which leads to high prices during the auction process. “The auction process is just adding to the difficulties of the genre which is already going through a lot of difficulties. As compared to other genres like GECs, the news genre is paying a higher price in the auction,” said another senior business head of a Hindi news channel.
In the last auction, Hindi movie channels, which were placed under Bucket A, had outshone other genres by paying Rs 194.85 crore for 15 slots. The average slot price and highest bid price stood at Rs 12.99 crore and Rs 13.35 crore respectively. The reserve price for the bucket was Rs 12 crore.
Meanwhile, the news and current affairs channels that come under Bucket C had bid Rs 190.3 crore for 11 slots. The average slot price and highest bid price stood at Rs 17.30 crore and Rs 22.05 crore respectively. The reserve price for news and current affairs channels was Rs 7 crore, which indicates the competition in the bucket. The news channels that won the bid, including Aaj Tak, Aaj Tak Tez, ABP News, India TV, NDTV India, News 18 India, News Nation, Republic TV Bharat, TV9 Bharatvarsh, Zee Hindustan, and Zee News, were all Hindi language channels.
“Earlier the slots were available for around Rs 50 lakh yearly, there was no bidding process. From the time this online bidding process has started, the auction price has gone up from Rs 7 crore to Rs 22 crore,” said the distribution head of a leading news channel.
“Apart from top three-four networks, news channels do not generate so much revenue so that they can spend such a high amount on DD Free Dish,” he added.
