Prasar Bharati announces 26 winners of DD Free Dish MPEG-4 e-auction

India’s Free-To-Air (FTA) broadcasting landscape, Prasar Bharati has announced the winners of the 7th Annual (86th) e-auction for MPEG-4 slots on DD Free Dish. A total of 26 channels successfully secured slots during the auction, which was held on March 4, 2025.

The winning channels span a diverse range of categories, including news, devotional content, regional entertainment, and general entertainment. This expansion is expected to further strengthen DD Free Dish, India’s largest free DTH platform, by offering audiences a richer and more varied content experience.

Among the successful bidders are:

Devotional Channels: Aastha Telugu, Aastha Bhajan, Aastha Gujarati, Aastha Kannada, Shraddha MH ONE, and Sharnam TV.
News Channels: Bansal News, Bharat 24 Vision of New India, Chardikla Time TV, Jai Maharashtra, MH ONE NEWS, Sudarshan News, TV9 Gujarati, TV9 Telugu, V TV News, and Zee 24 Kalak.

Entertainment & Regional Channels: Gangaur Television, Live Times, Maiboli, MH ONE, MH ONE DIL SE, Oscar Movies Bhojpuri, Pasand, Prag News, Raapchik, and Rengoni.

The inclusion of TV9 Gujarati, TV9 Telugu, and Zee 24 Kalak is a significant move that strengthens regional news coverage on DD Free Dish, catering to diverse linguistic audiences across the country. Additionally, devotional content continues to remain a major draw, with multiple Aastha channels securing slots.

The expansion of MPEG-4 slots aims to enhance the quality of transmission while ensuring that a wider variety of content remains accessible to millions of viewers without any subscription cost.

With the growing popularity of DD Free Dish, Prasar Bharati’s latest e-auction marks another step toward expanding the reach of free television in India, making diverse content available to audiences in even the most remote parts of the country.

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“This initiative will empower subscribers to pay online and subscribe to the channels they want to watch and get it activated on their TV sets in real-time without any delay. Without needing to undertake any software development, LMOs can approach Mobiezy for their pre-built and pre-integrated solution that uses NXTDigital’s news APIs and can be up and running with their own mobile apps within just a few days.”

RU Ediriwira, Group CTO, NXTDigital Limited

“With the launch of Partnership for Growth 3.0 we intend to expand our network with 40 new NXTHUBs, each offering up to 650 live TV channels and broadband. Our efforts are focused on harnessing the convergence of technologies, developing robust apps and creating new business models that will help the overall ecosystem, delivering the best experience to our subscribers. We hope to achieve a stronger foothold in the rural regions of the country and grow our subscriber base.”

N.K. Rouse, COO, NXT Digital Ltd

“One of the key principles of the Hinduja Group is ‘Partnership for Growth’. After 2.0 saw the launch of HITS to connect LMOs in even the most remote locations through the only satellite-based cable TV platform in India; 3.0 focuses not just on strengthening the overall ecosystem we have built, but harnessing the convergence of technologies – to be delivered through a national network of NXTHUBs. Video and broadband are only the beginning of the digital highway of services that we have developed for roll-out backed by a robust suite of innovative apps developed by service providers exclusively for our LMOs and subscribers.”

Vynsley Fernandes, MD & CEO, NXTDigital Limited

“Wireline broadband is becoming ever more important not only in connecting homes across the country but also small to large enterprises-to the digital economy. The NXTHUBs will be the perfect point-of-presence to offer broadband services to cater to these consumer needs.”

Yugal Kishore Sharma CEO, ONEOTT Intertainment Limited

Amazing and grim battle for survival. Guess it will end up in Supreme Court. All that NCLT asked Zee to do was to file a reply to Invesco petition for a EGM. Now this is getting too serious. So far Invesco has been hammered for demanding an EGM. What is Zee upto? Ofcourse my lawyer community knows better!