DD Free Dish may run into a dead-end as some of the top broadcasters have decided to pull out their Hindi mass entertainment channels from the free-to-air platform owned by public broadcaster Prasar Bharati.
The move by broadcasters like Star India, Zee Entertainment Enterprises (ZEE), Sony Pictures Networks India (SPN) and Viacom18 will affect over 22 million subscribers, who will not be able to watch popular channels such as Zee Anmol, Star Utsav, Rishtey Cineplex, Star Bharat and Sony Pal.
“In one of the rare occasions top four broadcasters have reached a consensus to not show any Hindi general entertainment channel or movie channel on Free Dish. This is to make sure that the existing cable and DTH customers don’t shift to Free Dish,” said a top executive from one of the broadcasters, who did not wish to be identified.
Sources across the four broadcasters have confirmed the development, though none of the broadcasters responded to ET’s queries till press time Tuesday.
Free Dish offers 80 channels, including 23 DD channels, Rajya Sabha TV and Lok Sabha TV. It is a lifetime free service for the consumer, who needs to make a one-time investment in buying the dish and the set-top box. Prasar Bharati earns revenue from selling the slots on the platform to broadcasters.
Prasar Bharati has recently formed a set of guidelines and is conducting auctions for the 54 slots on the platform. It had earned Rs 85 crore in the last auctions held in July 2017, where 11 private TV channels had won the slots.
Many experts feel that the move by the broadcasters will force consumers to go for pay TV service providers and will lead to a major loss of revenue for the pubcaster.
Calls made to Shashi Shekhar Vempati, CEO, Prasar Bharati, did not elicit any response till press time Tuesday.
ET had first reported in September last year that DD Free Dish is becoming a concern for broadcasters and distributors. Multiple broadcasters ET spoke with said that DD Free Dish is totally in contrast with Trai’s tariff order and interconnection regulations, and completely un-addressable. Even Prasar Bharati is not aware of the total number of active subscribers on the platform.
While various estimates peg the current subscriber base of DD Free Dish at 22-25 million, consulting firm Ernst and Young said the number will top 40 million by 2020.
Doordarshan had launched DD Free Dish (earlier DD Direct+) in December 2004 with a bouquet of 33 TV channels. The capacity of the DTH platform was augmented to 59 channels and then to 104 channels in December 2014.
It was the rural reach and growth of DD Free Dish, which made broadcast networks like Star India, ZEE, ESPN, Viacom18 and others to launch their FTA channels on the platform. These networks were initially seeking advertising moolah from clients targeting the middle and lower income viewers. But now Free Dish is available across the country and has grown to a size where it may become a threat to the entire value chain.
Last year, most broadcasters had converted their FTA channels into pay channels to create bundles and packages under the new tariff regime. “There is no level-playing field when it comes to Free Dish. The new tariff order is only for the addressable systems, and Free Dish doesn’t come in its ambit. Moreover, cable and DTH players have been asking us to withdraw channels from Free Dish, and the move will safeguard their interest,” said another broadcaster.
Prasar Bharati has divided channels into five buckets based on their genres and set the reserve price based on the bucket. Hindi general entertainment channels and teleshopping channels, for example, have a reserve price of Rs 15 crore, while Hindi movie channels have a reserve price of Rs 12 crore.
Zee Anmol,Zee Anmol Cinema,Sony Pal, Sony Wah, Rishtey, Rishtey Cineplex, Star Utsav, Star Utsav Movies, Star Bharat, Cinema TV and WOW Cinema will be removed from dd free dish platform from 01 march 2019
“In one of the rare occasions top four broadcasters have reached a consensus to not show any Hindi general entertainment channel or movie channel on Free Dish. This is to make sure that the existing cable and DTH customers don’t shift to Free Dish,” said a top executive from one of the broadcasters, who did not wish to be identified.
Sources across the four broadcasters have confirmed the development, though none of the broadcasters responded to ET’s queries till press time Tuesday.
Free Dish offers 80 channels, including 23 DD channels, Rajya Sabha TV and Lok Sabha TV. It is a lifetime free service for the consumer, who needs to make a one-time investment in buying the dish and the set-top box. Prasar Bharati earns revenue from selling the slots on the platform to broadcasters.
Prasar Bharati has recently formed a set of guidelines and is conducting auctions for the 54 slots on the platform. It had earned Rs 85 crore in the last auctions held in July 2017, where 11 private TV channels had won the slots.
Many experts feel that the move by the broadcasters will force consumers to go for pay TV service providers and will lead to a major loss of revenue for the pubcaster.
Calls made to Shashi Shekhar Vempati, CEO, Prasar Bharati, did not elicit any response till press time Tuesday.
ET had first reported in September last year that DD Free Dish is becoming a concern for broadcasters and distributors. Multiple broadcasters ET spoke with said that DD Free Dish is totally in contrast with Trai’s tariff order and interconnection regulations, and completely un-addressable. Even Prasar Bharati is not aware of the total number of active subscribers on the platform.
While various estimates peg the current subscriber base of DD Free Dish at 22-25 million, consulting firm Ernst and Young said the number will top 40 million by 2020.
Doordarshan had launched DD Free Dish (earlier DD Direct+) in December 2004 with a bouquet of 33 TV channels. The capacity of the DTH platform was augmented to 59 channels and then to 104 channels in December 2014.
It was the rural reach and growth of DD Free Dish, which made broadcast networks like Star India, ZEE, ESPN, Viacom18 and others to launch their FTA channels on the platform. These networks were initially seeking advertising moolah from clients targeting the middle and lower income viewers. But now Free Dish is available across the country and has grown to a size where it may become a threat to the entire value chain.
Last year, most broadcasters had converted their FTA channels into pay channels to create bundles and packages under the new tariff regime. “There is no level-playing field when it comes to Free Dish. The new tariff order is only for the addressable systems, and Free Dish doesn’t come in its ambit. Moreover, cable and DTH players have been asking us to withdraw channels from Free Dish, and the move will safeguard their interest,” said another broadcaster.
Prasar Bharati has divided channels into five buckets based on their genres and set the reserve price based on the bucket. Hindi general entertainment channels and teleshopping channels, for example, have a reserve price of Rs 15 crore, while Hindi movie channels have a reserve price of Rs 12 crore.
Zee Anmol,Zee Anmol Cinema,Sony Pal, Sony Wah, Rishtey, Rishtey Cineplex, Star Utsav, Star Utsav Movies, Star Bharat, Cinema TV and WOW Cinema will be removed from dd free dish platform from 01 march 2019
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