JioStar, Sony & Sun stay put on DD Free Dish

Amid speculation about top broadcasters planning to exit DD FreeDish, several GECs secured slots on the FTA platform on the first day of the MPEG-2 e-auction on Monday.

JioStar’s Colors Rishtey, Sony’s Sony Pal and Sun TV’s Sun Neo have got slots in the auction. Sony Pal and Colors Rishtey have each secured one slot on DD Free Dish. These channels were classified as “pay” in the new RIOs released recently. 

According to sources, the public service broadcaster has generated over Rs 50 crore on the first day from the sale of Bucket A+ category, which includes the Hindi/Urdu GECs. 

These slots have been allotted for the period of April 1, 2025, to March 31, 2026, for which Prasar Bharati had invited applications in January. 

The auction, which continues today, has already surpassed last year’s first-day earnings, sources said. 

According to sources, Sony Pal, Colors Rishtey, and Sun Neo won slots for ?18.55 crore, ?18.35 crore, and ?18.5 crore, respectively. 

According to reports, compared to the previous year’s e-auctions, the first slots this year have fetched a 20% premium over the ?15 crore base price.

Bucket A+ includes General Entertainment Channels (GEC) in Hindi and Urdu, while Bucket A covers Movie channels in the same languages. 

Bucket B consists of Music and Sports channels in Hindi and Urdu, channels in the Bhojpuri language, and any other Hindi/Urdu channels not classified elsewhere. 

Bucket C focuses on News and Current Affairs channels in Hindi and Urdu. 

Bucket D encompasses Devotional, Spiritual, or Ayush channels; all Marathi and Punjabi channels; English News and Current Affairs channels; and regional language channels (excluding Hindi, Urdu, Marathi, and Punjabi) that are either newly launched or re-launched and meet specific criteria. 

Bucket R includes channels in regional languages other than Hindi, Urdu, Marathi, and Punjabi, provided they meet operational and platform eligibility requirements. This categorization ensures an equitable and systematic allotment of channels across diverse genres and linguistic groups.

Earlier, there were speculations that major broadcasters like Star, Sony, and Colors were planning to pull out their channels from DD Free Dish, due to a tariff regulation dispute with TRAI. 

As per TRAI’s July 8 regulation, any pay-TV channel available on a free platform like DD Free Dish must convert to free-to-air (FTA) on all platforms. 

Broadcasters challenged this rule, but TDSAT refused to grant a stay, making compliance mandatory.