MUMBAI: In probably what is a first, DD FreeDish’s e-auction was scrapped yesterday. The reason: technical glitches on the site of the auctioneer C1 India Pvt Ltd.

DD has made this announcement on its website admitting that, since bidders were experiencing problems, the bidding process was being put off until C1 India rectifies the errors.

DD FreeDish had announced 5 October as the 31st e-auction date last month. It had put the reserve price for the vacant slot at Rs 4.3 crore despite the bid amount touching Rs 5.2 crore in the previous 30th e-auction. It had also urged private channels whose agreement with the free DTH was expiring on 31 December 2016 needed to take part in the e-auction to continue to be distributed by it.

DD said it would keep bidders informed about the resumption date.

The free TV service is gearing up to expand its capacity to 104 channels and then to 250 by 2018. It has started rolling out MPEG4 boxes with iCAS, in place of the earlier MPEG2 ones.

DD FreeDish has come as a boon of sorts, helping India’s broadcasters to generate good revenues from old library and catalogue channels. Channels such as Zee Anmol, Sony Pal, Star Utsav – tenants of DD FreeDish -- which show reruns of old TV shows and films have suddenly become the eye candy of the advertising community as they offer them reach in rural areas that channels distributed by cable TV and private DTH cannot.