ZEE, JioStar secure highest bids at Prasar Bharati’s MPEG-2 slot e-auction

Prasar Bharati’s MPEG-2 slot e-auction entered its second day, with the A+ category securing the highest bids ranging between ?17 crore and ?18.6 crore. 

Among the major broadcasters participating in the Free Dish auction, Zee acquired one slot for ?18.60 crore and another for ?17.25 crore, while Star secured its slot at ?18.25 crore.

In the A category, six slots were auctioned. Slot 1 was sold for ?16.5 crore, Slot 2 for ?16.9 crore, Slot 3 for ?16.6 crore, Slot 4 for ?16.5 crore, Slot 5 for ?18.3 crore, and Slot 6 for ?15.6 crore. Sources suggest that some of these slots were acquired by Star Utsav Movies, Sony Wah, and Zee Anmol Cinema.

Despite the competitive bidding, industry insiders have expressed concerns over the overall auction performance. 

Sources say it was a “bad show”, suggesting that the market is now more balanced compared to previous years. 

According to sources, overall TV revenues have gone down for broadcasters and so they are being cautious about the spends. The return on investment (ROI) from DD Free Dish is no longer as lucrative with the rapid adaptation of the internet and usage of OTT for free content, they said. 

Additionally, there is a growing perception that these slots are now more easily available, making them less competitive than before, sources said. 

With the A and A+ category auctions now closed, the focus now shifts to the Category B slots, which are set to open for bidding on Wednesday. 

Broadcasters like Star, Viacom, Sony, and Zee participated in the A category, indicating strong competition despite market concerns.

The e-auction shows the return of top broadcasters to DD FreeDish as JioStar, Zee, Sony and Sun TV Network actively participated and secured slots at highest bids.

Earlier, these broadcasters had declared their general entertainment channels (GECs) as pay channels in their reference interconnect offers (RIOs).

They had also allegedly decided to pull out of the FTA service over the conflict with TRAI and TDSAT order that mandates channels to be either free or pay across platforms.