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| DD Free Dish plans to add 24 new channels, increasing the number from 80 to 104 in the next three months |
Movie channels Premiere Cinema and Sony Wah, Hindi music channel 9X Jalwa and educational channel Vision Shiksha will soon be available on DD Free Dish, state broadcaster Doordarshan’s direct-to-home platform for free-to-air channels.These channels were the winners in the e-auction of four vacant slots on 30 May, a Doordarshan official familiar with the matter said, requesting not to be identified. DD Free Dish currently has 80 channels on its platform.
Premiere Cinema is owned by Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd, 9X Jalwa by 9X Media, Sony Wah by Sony Pictures Networks and Vision Shiksha by Vision Corporation Ltd.According to the official cited above, Premiere Cinema put in the highest bid at Rs.4.9 crore, followed by 9X Jalwa (Rs.4.6 crore), Sony Wah (Rs.4.5 crore and Vision Shiksha (Rs.4.4 crore). This was the 27th such auction, and the DTH operator had added nine channels in the previous auction. The reserve price was set at Rs.4.3 crore, same as in the last auction in February.
DD free Dish also offered a vacant slot to the Hindi movies channel RT Movies at the last auctioned price of Rs.4.40 crore. RT Movies, which is owned by Royal Television Ltd participated in the auction but was unsuccessful.Currently, out of 80 slots, Free Dish has three vacant slots. DD Free Dish plans to fill these three slots on pro-rata basis, which means these slots will be available to different private channels on a monthly basis and can be removed by the operator any time it wants.There were no slots reserved for regional language channels in this auction. Under Doordarshan policy, slots for regional channels can only be reserved once a year and DD Free Dish had already reserved such slots in the previous auction.
DD Free Dish plans to add 24 new channels, increasing the number from 80 to 104 in the next three months. Channels currently on Free Dish include news channels like Aaj Tak, ABP news, News 24 and entertainment channels like Star Utsav, Sony Pal, Viacom18’s Rishtey and Rishtey Cineplex, among others. Free Dish has 25 Doordarshan channels, including the official channels of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.In May, public broadcaster Prasar Bharati which runs Doordarshan and All India Radio had announced its plans to revamp DD National channel by the end of September, by auctioning its evening 7-11pm prime time slots. This means Doordarshan will now outsource some general entertainment programmes to external production houses through an auction.
Source & Credit:- http://www.livemint.com/Consumer/CMA4nPjZog9AllOj7ziIOI/DD-Free-Dish-adds-4-channels-in-27th-eauction.html