Mumbai: Prasar Bharati has invited applications for the allotment of vacant MPEG-4 slots of DD Free Dish DTH platform for the period from 1 September 2021 to 31 March 2022 through the 55th e-auction. The e-auction process will be tentatively held on the afternoon of 23 August.
The bidding process shall be open to all genre (language) channels at a starting reserve price of Rs 65.35 lakh for the period from 1 September 2021 to 31 March 2022.
The slots will be allotted in accordance with policy guidelines for allotment of DD Free Dish slots, notified on 15 January 2019 and amended vide amendment notified on 30 March 2019, 1 November 2019, and 22 February 2021.
Only satellite channels licensed by the ministry of information and broadcasting for downlinking in India would be allotted slots on DD Free Dish. Only license holder companies or their authorised distributor partners can apply for allocation of DD Free Dish slots.
International public broadcasters permitted/registered/licensed by the I&B ministry can also participate in the e-auction.
In case the applicant company is other than licensee, the document/agreement signed between the license holder company and applicant company authorising the applicant bidder for distribution of the channel and bidding on behalf of the licensee must be admitted.
Successful bidders shall be required to make payments in five monthly instalments as per the payment schedule prescribed under the policy guidelines, for allotment for DD Free Dish slots. Each instalment will be one fifth of the difference of bid amount and participation fee.
Participating channels must pay a mandatory non-refundable processing fee of Rs 25,000 and participation fee of Rs 10 lakh. The payment is to be made only through demand draft.
For unsuccessful bidders the participation fee will be refunded within three weeks after the declaration of the results of e-auction.
Successful channels will be required to arrange their own IRD box in advance at DTH Earth Station, Todapur, New Delhi, to place their channel on DD Free Dish platform.
The last date of submission of online application and original demand draft towards participation fee is 23 August by 11 a.m.
