Industry awaits clarity on capacity, slot disclosures and auction rules ahead of FY26 DD Free Dish bidding
Industry leaders express concerns over Broadcast Bill exempting DD FreeDish from the encryption mandate that can undermine efforts to combat piracy and maintain industry standards
Broadcasters, e4m has learnt, have found the base price exorbitant
TRAI has highlighted that the broadcasters have been charging DPOs with subscription fees for pay channels, but are also paying DD Free Dish to carry the same channels
As per experts from the broadcast industry, the recommendation to encrypt DD Free Dish channels is “just to please DPOs” and is pointless until Prasar Bharati falls within TRAI’s ambit
TRAI also issued recommendations to MIB on certain issues like 'Listing of channels in Electronic Programme Guide' and the transition of 'DD Free Dish' to an addressable system
The MIB secy said in a meeting with the media that almost 25% of broadcasting is now happening through DD Free Dish
Broadcasters say the reserve prices in the 77th e-auction for MPEG-2 slots were 'too high'
The allotment of the vacant slots is for the period June 4, 2024 to March 31, 2025, for MPEG 4; for MPEG-2 the period is June 1, 2024, to March 31, 2025
India has nearly 320 million households, out of which over 100 million do not have access to television, according to TRAI
Compared to last year’s Rs 100.35 crore, six news channels have secured slots for a total of Rs 112.25 crore; industry observers attribute the rise to the upcoming general elections
Cable operators allege that unregistered local players in rural areas are illegally taking unencrypted feed from DD Free Dish and providing it to customers, which is harming the industry
The channel was the only participant in the auction, say sources
The QoS regulations that require the channels to be provided in an encrypted manner is being disregarded, say sources
The allotments will be on a pro-rata basis for the period July 18, 2023 to March 31, 2024
The slots will be awarded through the 70th online e-auction process to be tentatively held on July 4
The channels will be on air from April 1
The average price per slot stands at Rs 16.5 crore
Zee Chitramandir, Zee Punjabi, Fakt Marathi, Shemaroo MarathiBana, Manoranjan Movies, Sanskar TV and Sun Marathi picked up the slots
Prasar Bharati collected Rs 116.9 crore from the sale of seven slots
News18, Republic Bharat, TV9 & Zee News paid Rs 19.85 crore, Rs 16.55 crore, Rs 14.55 crore and Rs 15.5 crore respectively, shared sources
At Rs 24 crore, Zee Anmol Cinema buys the most expensive movie genre slot ever
Three slots in Bucket B also sold on Day 3
The industry bodies believe that the auction procedure is skewed against all news and current affairs channels
11 channels bag slots in Hindi GEC and movie categories
Six GEC and five movie channels grab slots even as auction continues
The slots were bagged by Aastha Bhajan, Aastha Tamil, Bansal News, Chardikla Time TV, MH ONE DIL SE, News 18 UP/UK, News State UP/UK, RT, Sudarshan News, Swadesh News and Vedic
The slots are being allotted for a period of one year, from April 1, 2023 to March 31, 2024
This has come into effect from 27th January
The channel is present across all major DTH and MSO platforms
The process is to be tentatively held on December 19, 2022
Prasar Bharati recently invited applications for allotment of DD Free Dish MPEG-2 slots on a pro-rata basis
While speaking to media analysts on FTA, Punit Goenka emphasised that the industry must wait patiently to see the full impact of the pull-out on subscription revenues
As per industry sources, the big broadcasters, who are looking to relaunch their Hindi GECs on the FTA DTH platform, decided to sit out as only two slots were up for grabs
Sources say the rationale behind exiting DD Free Dish earlier this year was to arrest the decline in pay DTH base, but the gamble doesn't seem to have paid off
The Free DTH service has clocked a growth of almost 100% from 22 million in 2017 to 43 million in 2022
The network has introduced ‘COLORS Cineplex Superhits’ that is set to go live on April 1, 2022
The report also stated that the growth in Pay TV, Free TV & Connected TV shows that overall TV connections will keep growing at a pace of over 5% per year to cross 67% of Indian households by 2025
The revenue has reduced due to the exit of key channels of big four broadcasters and the drop in overall collection from the news genre, say industry sources
Industry watchers say that the pullout of channels like Star Utsav, Zee Anmol, Colors Rishtey and Sony Pal will also benefit news channels in the form of more slots being allotted to Bucket C
The highest bid price stood at Rs 1.6 crore and the average slot price was Rs 1.27 crore
The slots will be awarded through the fourth annual e-auction process to be tentatively held from March 7
We bring you a roundup of the news that made headlines this past week
Industry players claim that non-disclosure of vacant slots on DD Free Dish leads to irrational bids by news channels
The public notice reads that broadcasters desirous of allotment of the slot on DD Free Dish are required to provide clear and unambiguous proof in support of genre classification of their channel
The platform has added Showbox, Ishara TV, Sun Marathi, Naaptol, and Enterr10 Bangla
The latest expansion now pushes the total number of MPEG-2 slots from 88 to 94
Star India, Viacom18 Media, Zee Entertainment Enterprises, and Sony Pictures Networks India made a comeback on DD Free Dish during 2020 to capitalise on advertising revenues
The spurt in numbers is attributed to affordable television sets, economic issues, the launch of the DD Retro Channel, and the return of big broadcasters to the Free Dish platform
Hindi movie channels, which are placed under A bucket, have outshined other genres by paying Rs 194.85 crore for 15 slots