MUMBAI: Public broadcaster Prasar Bharati has amended the DD Free Dish policy in a meeting held earlier this week. Under the amended policy, a new bucket has been created to reserve MPEG2 slots towards devotional channels. The reserve price of the bucket has been fixed at Rs 3 crore.

“Consequently a new Bucket R1 has been created to reserve MPEG2 slots towards devotional/spiritual/AYUSH channels which may be placed through the open eAuction process as laid down in the policy,” Prasar Bharati CEO Shashi Shekhar Vempati said on Twitter.

Spiritual channels including channels promoting Yoga, Ayurveda, Health & Wellness (AYUSH) based on traditional methods fall under the devotional category or bucket R1. Under amended policy, three slots have been reserved for genres deemed to be in public interest. The amended policy also says that placement of regional channels of Doordarshan that are currently not available on DTH/cable may be considered for placement on vacant MPEG2/MPEG4 slots reserved for the same.

Vempati also revealed on Saturday the results of the first annual e-auction for MPEG4 slots on  FreeDish. After robust bidding, a total of 15 MPEG4 slots were successfully sold to channels across genres and languages.