News18, Republic Bharat, TV9, Zee News, and NDTV India have secured slots on DD Free Dish on the third day of the MPEG-2 e-auction.
According to media reports, despite the decision of the News Broadcasters Federation (NBF) and the News Broadcasters & Digital Association (NBDA) to boycott the process, the channels bid.
News18 paid Rs 19.85 crore for the first slot, Republic Bharat paid Rs 16.55 crore for the second, TV9 paid Rs 14.55 crore for the third, Zee News paid Rs 15.5 crore for the fourth, and NDTV India paid Rs. 16.55 crore for the fifth. Bucket C, which includes news and current affairs (Hindi) channels, starts at Rs 7 crore.
ABP News secured the sixth DD Freedish slot of round one for Bucket C today for Rs 17.10 crore.
The majority of the nation’s national and regional news networks are represented by the NBF and NBDA, who decided to withdraw from the auction on March 14.
The NBF and NBDA complained that the auction process was biased against all news and current affairs channels in a letter to I&B Minister Anurag Thakur.