KOLKATA: Prasar Bharati has amended the policy guidelines for DD Free Dish slots. According to new guidelines, the reserve price for MPEG-4 slots have been fixed at Rs 50 lakh per annum. Earlier, the reserve price was Rs 5 lakh per annum.

The amended rules termed “Policy guidelines for allotment of slots of DD Free Dish Direct-to-Home Platform to satellite TV channels (Third amendments), 2021” came into force from 22 February.

“Bidding in the e-auction of vacant unreserved MPEG-4 slots will be open to all genre (language) channels at reserve price of Rs 50 lakh/annum,” Prasar Bharati wrote in a notification.

Under the old rules, the participation fee was at Rs 1.25 lakh which has been revised to Rs 10 lakh. Incremental amount in the auction bids of MPEG-4 slots stands at a minimum Rs 2 lakh, compared to Rs 10,000 under old guidelines.

Along with issuing the revised guidelines, Prasar Bharati has also invited applications for allotment of vacant MPEG-4 slots of DD Free Dish DTH platform for the period from 1 April 2021 to 31 March 2022.

Only satellite channels licensed by the ministry of information and broadcasting for downlinking in India would be allotted slots on DD Free Dish. Further, only license holder companies or their authorised distributor partners can apply for the allocation of DD Free Dish slot. International public broadcasters licensed or registered or permitted by the MIB can also participate in the e-auction.

The last date for submission of applications and original demand draft is 12 March.