MUMBAI: Doordarshan will conduct the 39th e-auction for filling up of vacant MPEG-4 slots of its FTA DTH platform Free Dish w.e.f 27 March 2019. Only satellite channels licensed by the Ministry of I&B would be allowed to participate in the e-auction.

Bidding in the e-auction of vacant unreserved MPEG-4 slots will be for an initial period open to all genre (language) channels at an invitation reserve price of Rs 5 lakh.

International public broadcasters licensed/registered by the Ministry of I&B can also participate in e-auction.

“We request all those channels that could not bid for MPEG2 slots for various reasons to consider bidding for the MPEG4 slots,” Prasar Bharati CEO Shashi Shekhar Vempati said.

If required, Prasar Bharati/Doordarshan can extend e-auction to the next day or as the case may be.

Recently the pubcaster sold 40 MPEG2 slots for Rs 395 crore.

As shared by Prasar Bharati, the highest bid price in Bucket A+ was Rs 15.05 crore, while it was Rs 12.45 crore in Bucket A. Bucket B commanded a top bid of Rs10.95 crore. In Bucket C, which saw the toughest competition, the highest bid was Rs 8.95 crore. Bucket D saw a top bid of Rs 6.1 crore.

After the e-auction, Vempati asserted that the language diversity on DD FreeDish has also seen an expansion with Marathi channels taking up slots.  He also added that nearly eight new channels have taken up space across various categories and genres in various languages.