NEW DELHI: With Indian conditional access system (iCAS) helping it to carry more channels, the 28th e-auction to fill up vacant slots on Doordarshan’s direct-to-home Freedish will be held on 28 July.
The reserve price is Rs 4.3 crore for the slots on the country’s only free to ar DTH platform. The reserve price which had been Rs 3.7 crore was raised to its present level for the 25th e-auction in January.
indiantelevision.com had learnt that the bid amount went up to Rs 4.7 crore in earlier e-auctions. The reserve price in the 15th e-auction was Rs three crore and was raised to Rs 3.7 crore in the 16th auction.
DD sources refused to divulge the number of slots being auctioned to prevent bidders forming consortia to bid or resort to other malpractices. The platform at present has space for eighty channels including its own channels and Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha TV and also carrues 24 All India Radio channels.
These sources told indiantelevision.com that Freedish is being encrypted to keep a tab on the number of subscribers, but it would remain free-to-air.
The e-Auction will be conducted by M/s. C1 India Pvt. Ltd., Noida which also conducted the first stage of the FM Radio Phase III auctions on behalf of Prasar Bharati.
The eligibility terms and conditions including other relevant details for this e-Auction are displayed on DD website: www.ddindia.gov.in.
The participation amount (EMD) in the e-Auction is Rs.1.5 crore which will be deposited in advance before or by 12 noon on 28 July along with processing fee of Rs.10,000 (Non-refundable) in favour of PB (BCI) Doordarshan Commercial Service, New Delhi.
Incremental amount for the auction will be Rs 10 lakh and the time for every slot e-auction will be of fifteen minutes duration. This may be extended by five minutes if a bid is received before the closing time.
Of the reserve price, Rs 1.1 crore will be deposited within one month of placement and another Rs 1.1 crore within two months along with service tax of 14.5 per cent on the bid amount.
The balance bid amount will be deposited within six months, failing which the deposited amount will be forfeited and the channel discontinued after a 21-day discontinuation notice.
