Doordarshan Freedish earns Rs 23.2 crore from 6 channels in 21st e-auction

Doordarshan Freedish earns Rs 23.2 crore from 6 channels in 21st e-auction

Freedish

NEW DELHI: Doordarshan has earned Rs 23.2 crore from the 21st online e-auction of six slots to Indian television channels on its free-to-air DTH platform Freedish. 

 

DD's target is to touch 112 television channels on Freedish over the next few months.

 

Against a reserve price of Rs 3.7 crore per slot for the online e-auction, DD earned as much as Rs 4.1 crore from Colors Rishtey, whereas Star Utsav got its slot for Rs 3.9 crore.

 

Doordarshan sources told Indiantelevision.com that the other slots went to Zee Anmol, Zee Sangam, Housefull Movies and B4U Music for Rs 3.8 crore each. 

 

However, as per information available with this website, the bid amount had gone up to Rs 4.2 crore in one of the earlier e-auctions.

 

DD sources also said that while Freedish may be encrypted to keep a tab on the number of subscribers, it would continue to remain free-to-air.

 

The e-Auction was conducted by C1 India Pvt. Ltd., Noida on behalf of Prasar Bharati, thus marking a change in the auctioneer.

 

The reserve price in the 15th e-auction was Rs 3 crore and was raised to Rs 3.7 crore in the 16th auction.

 

The six channels were part of Freedish but had to re-bid as their contract had expired. Consequently, Freedish retains 64 channels including DD's channels and Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha TV.

 

The participation amount (EMD) in the e-Auction was Rs 1.5 crore, which was deposited in advance along with a non-refundable processing fee of Rs 10,000 in favour of PB (BCI) Doordarshan Commercial Service, New Delhi.

 

Incremental amount for the auction was Rs 10 lakh and the time for every slot e-auction was of fifteen minutes duration.

 

Of the reserve price, Rs 1.1 crore will be deposited within one month of placement and another Rs 1.1 crore within two months along with service tax of 14 per cent on the bid amount.

 

The balance bid amount will be deposited within six months, failing which the reserve price will be forfeited.

 

Applicants had to provide details of the Uplink/Downlink permission documents received from the concerned Ministries with the applications to ensure they are not rejected.