Prasar Bharati to hold DD Free Dish mid-year MPEG-4 auction on September 24

Prasar Bharati has invited applications for its 102nd e-auction of vacant MPEG-4 slots on the DD Free Dish platform, with the mid-year auction tentatively scheduled to begin on 24 September, according to a notification issued by the broadcaster on 16 September.

Slots will be allotted for the six-month carriage period from 1 October 2026 to 31 March 2027, on a pro-rata basis. Only satellite TV channels permitted and licensed by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting are eligible to participate, alongside similarly licensed international public broadcasters.

Eligible channels are divided into five buckets by genre and language. News and Current Affairs channels under Bucket G1 carry the steepest starting reserve price at Rs 39.83 lakh, followed by Bucket G2, covering all non-news channels, at Rs 36.40 lakh. Regional-language buckets are priced lower: Bucket R2, covering Punjabi, Marathi, Gujarati, Bengali and Odia channels, starts at Rs 21.56 lakh, while Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam channels under Bucket R1 carry a starting reserve of Rs 3 lakh.

Applicants must pay a non-refundable processing fee of Rs 25,000 and a participation fee of Rs 3 lakh, with a lower formula applying to the R1 and R3 buckets. Prasar Bharati has also tightened the link between a channel’s declared classification and what it actually broadcasts, defining a channel’s declared genre and language as needing to account for at least 60% of its monthly content. Applications and proof of participation-fee payment are due by 3 PM on 22 September.

Successful bidders face a 14.5% annual interest rate on overdue payments and must place their channel on the allotted slot within a month of allotment or risk forfeiting their fee and losing the slot.

Source: Prasar Bharati, notice dated 16 September 2026.