MUMBAI: Fifteen channels that were successful in gaining an MPEG4 slot on Doordarshan’s free-to-air (FTA) DTH platform Free Dish were made available to subscribers on Wednesday.

“DD Free Dish DTH opens a new chapter with channels going on MPEG4 slots,” said Prasar Bharati (PB) CEO Shashi Shekhar Vempati.

Among the channels that have gone on air, 12 are Hindi channels while the remaining three are non-Hindi. Five of the 15 channels are religious channels - Aastha Bhajan, Arihant, Satsang, Subh TV and Vedic TV.

Chardikala Time TV (News Punjabi), Aryan TV National (News Hindi), ABP Ganga (News Hindi) are news channels on the platform, while Enter 10 Bangla (Movies Bangla), Oscar Bhojpuri (Movies Bhojpuri), Sky Star Bangla (Movies Hindi), WoW Cinema One (Movies Hindi) are the four movie channels.

The sole music channel is Sky Star Telugu (Music Hindi), with two channels Home Shop18 and NT1 available under the teleshopping genre.

Free Dish platform now comes with a new interactive EPG.

Earlier this year, PB netted Rs 6.62 crore from the first-ever e-auction, held between 27-29 March, of MPEG-4 slots on the DD Free Dish platform. The highest bid during the e-auction was Rs 57.1 lakh (reserve price of Rs 5 lakh), with an average of Rs 44.17 lakh per slot.

The public broadcaster stated that there was an overwhelming response to the 39th e-auction, as almost four times the applications were received against the vacant MPEG-4 slots.

“The e-auction saw slots being taken at an average price that was nearly 8 to 9 times the invitational price underscoring the high competition. With this overall projected annual revenue from DD Free Dish will cross Rs 400 crore between MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 slots,” Vempati had said at the time.

The pubcaster had generated Rs 394.49 crore from the sale of 40 MPEG-2 slots during DD Free Dish’s 38th e-auction.