Prasar Bharati’s annual e-auction for allotting vacant DD Free Dish MPEG-2 slots will kick off on March 13, according to an official notification. The slots will be allotted for a one-year period from April 2023 to March 2024.
In 2022, the big broadcasters decided not to participate in the auction of vacant slots for Bucket A+, which is reserved for Hindi GECs.
Pay DTH platforms have been putting pressure on the big broadcasters not to distribute their Hindi GECs on DD Free Dish since the availability of pay content on the free DTH platform is encouraging customers to give up their pay-TV connection in favour of DD Free Dish.
A senior TV distribution executive with a leading network said the four Hindi GECs will most likely return to DD Free Dish. “Following the exit of the four Hindi GECs, the pay-TV base had seen some stabilisation. However, the pay-TV base is bound to see a decline in the long run. In the meantime, the big broadcasters are losing roughly Rs 250 crore ad revenue per channel due to their non-availability of these channels on DD Free Dish,” the executive said on condition of anonymity.
A senior TV ad sales executive said the broadcasters have not seen any gain in subscription revenue whereas they had to forego ad revenue due to the exit from DD Free Dish.
“Ultimately, the loss outweighs the gain. Therefore, the big broadcasters are likely to go back to DD Free Dish. Two of the four leading channels had bought slots on DD Free Dish last year but they gave up under pressure from other broadcasters. It will be interesting to see if the big broadcasters will be able to handle the pressure from the likes of Tata Play this time,” the executive said on condition of anonymity.
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