NEW DELHI: Aiming at a target of 112 television channels in the next few months, Doordarshan has set a reserve price of Rs 3.7 crore per slot for the 18th online e-auction to be conducted on 28 November.
However, it is learnt that the bid amount went up to Rs 4.2 crore in the last e-auction held on 12 November. This came shortly after the 16th e-auction on 28 October.
The e-auction will be conducted by Synise Technologies, Pune on behalf of Prasar Bharati.
The reserve price in the 15th e-auction was Rs 3 crore and was raised to Rs 3.7 crore in the 16th auction.
Prior to the sixteenth auction, the total number of channels on Freedish was 58.
Meanwhile, a Doordarshan official declined to give the number of successful bids on 28 October as engineers of the pubcaster had to test these channels before verifying any numbers.
A Prasar Bharati official told indiantelevision.com that DD had decided not to disclose the number of slots to be e-auctioned to prevent bidders forming consortia to bid or resort to other malpractices.
The eligibility terms and conditions including other relevant details for this e-auction are displayed on DD website: www.ddindia.gov.in.
However, the participation amount (EMD) in the e-auction is Rs.1.5 crore which has been deposited in advance on or before 11 November evening along with processing fee of Rs.10,000 (Non-refundable) in favour of PB (BCI) Doordarshan Commercial Service, New Delhi.
Applicants have also been asked mandatorily to deposit a demand draft of Rs 5,500 registration amount favouring M/s. Synise Technologies Ltd., payable at Pune at the time of submission of the application. The time for every slot e-auction will be of fifteen minutes duration.
The applicants must provide details of the uplink/downlink permission documents received from the concerned Ministries with the Applications to ensure they are not rejected.
The demand drafts of unsuccessful bidders will be returned immediately or within a week after the e-auction process is completed.
