That Indian pubcaster Doordarshan’s FreeDish is a growing competition to pay TV platforms got reiterated when after some fierce bidding, 63 channels managed to find slots for a year on the free DTH platform.

In the latest e-auction for allotment of MPEG-2 slots of DD FreeDish for the year April 2022 to March 2023, 63 TV channels were successfully allocated slots in various genres. In sync with the rise in the subscription base of DD FreeDish, the number of TV channels too increased this year in multiple buckets or categories, pubcaster’s parent Prasar Bharati said Thursday.

The number of TV channels in the News and Current Affairs category increased from 11 to 14, while the bucket of Hindi Music, Hindi Sports, Hindi Teleshopping channels, Bhojpuri Movies and Bhojpuri GECs registered a growth from 13 to 16 channels.

DD FreeDish hosts a total of 167 TV channels and 48 radio channels, including 91 Doordarshan channels (comprising 51 co-branded educational channels) and 76 private TV channels.

From April 2022, FreeDish private TV channels bouquet would comprise eight Hindi GECs, 15 Hindi Movie channels, 6 Music channels, 22 News channels, 9 Bhojpuri channels, 4 Devotional and two foreign channels.

The new channel line-up has rendered the FreeDish bouquet more diverse and engaging than ever, the national broadcaster said, adding for the first time, a dedicated channel, Food Food by celebrity chef Sanjeev Kapoor, has been added. In the sports category, apart from DD Sports, another sports channel, MyCam, reportedly from the Viacom18 stable, will be available.

Quoting a recent FICCI-EY Indian M&E sector report, Prasar Bharati said  it says FreeDish distributors mentioned year on year growth in sales of DD FreeDish set-top boxes. In stark comparison to 22 million subscribers in 13 years between 2004 and 2017, FreeDish’s growth over the last five years stood out as it added another 21 million subscribers taking the total to 43 million.

The FICCI-EY report said, “Free Television continued to grow its base to reach an estimated 43 million subscribers on the back of less expensive television sets, economic issues, and addition of new channels to the platform.”

DD FreeDish is the only free-to-air DTH service where the viewer doesn’t have to pay a monthly subscription fee. A one-time investment of about Rs. 2,000 (approximately $ 22)  for purchase of the dish antenna and the set-top box is all one needs to get access to 167 TV channels and over 40 radio channels, which are primarily DD sibling All India Radio’s stations.

However, several distribution platforms, including pay DTH operators, have objected to popular TV channels and GECs hopping on to the FreeDish bandwagon, saying it is a skewed business proposition as many of the GECs, available on FreeDish, carry a price tag when offered to other distributors. Those riding the FreeDish bandwagon exploit the wide reach of the platform to increase advertising revenues.