India’s public service broadcaster, Prasar Bharati, has floated a formal Request for Proposal (RFP) to select and appoint an external technical agency to conduct electronic auctions (e-auctions) for television channel slots on DD Free Dish and other platforms operated by the state network. Issued by the Directorate General of Doordarshan, the tender carries an estimated contract value of ₹32 lakh (inclusive of applicable taxes) and initiates the process of outsourcing the high-stakes bidding infrastructure that governs commercial slot allocations for India’s largest Direct-To-Home (DTH) platform.
Key takeaways
- Tender scope and valuation: Prasar Bharati has issued a turnkey RFP valued at ₹32 lakh to appoint an agency responsible for operating the online e-auction engine for channel slot allocations on DD Free Dish and allied digital broadcasting platforms.
- Key bidding milestones: The Directorate General of Doordarshan has scheduled a pre-bid clarification conference on October 8, 2026, at Doordarshan Bhawan in New Delhi, with the deadline for bid submissions and the opening of technical bids set for October 22, 2026, at 1:00 PM.
- Financial and deposit parameters: Prospective agencies must furnish an Earnest Money Deposit (EMD) of ₹64,000, with the successful contractor required to provide a performance security bank guarantee equal to 3% of the contract value within 30 days of award.
- Make in India compliance: The tender is strictly restricted to domestic Indian entities, with mandatory alignment to the central government’s Make in India public procurement guidelines and micro-and-small enterprise (MSE) preferences.
- Strategic revenue conduit: The agency selected under this tender will manage the digital bidding environment through which private satellite networks—including major Hindi general entertainment, movie, and news broadcasters—compete for annual carriage slots that generate hundreds of crores in non-tax revenue for the public broadcaster.
Tender architecture: Key timelines and procedural requirements
The procurement process, registered under tender reference DDFD/3(03)/2026/Platforms, establishes a structured two-bid evaluation mechanism:
PROCUREMENT AND BID EVALUATION TIMELINE:
[ October 1, 2026: RFP Issued by Directorate General, Doordarshan ]
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[ October 8, 2026 (3:00 PM): Pre-Bid Clarification Meeting at Doordarshan Bhawan ]
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[ October 22, 2026 (1:00 PM): Technical Bid Submission Deadline & Opening ]
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[ Technical Qualification & Platform Demonstration ]
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[ Opening of Financial Bids for Qualified Domestic Agencies ]
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[ Final Award & Performance Security (3% Contract Value within 30 Days) ]
To participate in the procurement process, agencies must register on Prasar Bharati’s official e-procurement portal (prasarbharati.eproc.in) and hold valid Class-III Digital Signature Certificates (DSC).
The financial bids will be opened exclusively for vendors that clear rigorous technical qualification benchmarks, including demonstrable uptime reliability, secure encryption protocols, and capacity to handle simultaneous high-frequency bidding sessions without server latency.
| Tender Parameter | Specification / Statutory Requirement |
| Issuing Authority | Directorate General, Doordarshan (Prasar Bharati) |
| Tender Reference | DDFD/3(03)/2026/Platforms |
| Nature of Work | Hiring of an Agency for conducting E-auctions for DD Free Dish & other platforms |
| Estimated Value | ₹32,00,000 (₹32 Lakh), including all applicable taxes |
| Earnest Money Deposit (EMD) | ₹64,000 |
| Pre-Bid Meeting Date | October 8, 2026, at 3:00 PM IST (Doordarshan Bhawan, New Delhi) |
| Bid Opening Date | October 22, 2026, at 1:00 PM IST |
| Performance Guarantee | 3% of total contract value within 30 days of award |
| Eligibility Restriction | Indian Bidders only (Make in India Policy compliant) |
Source: Compiled from Prasar Bharati Directorate General of Doordarshan RFP documents.
Why the DD Free Dish auction mechanism matters
While the ₹32 lakh tender value represents a modest administrative expenditure, the operational responsibility entrusted to the winning bidder is substantial. The e-auction engine serves as the transactional gateway for DD Free Dish, which commands an estimated household reach exceeding 45 million homes, cementing its status as the world’s largest single Free-to-Air (FTA) satellite television distributor.
Because DD Free Dish levies no monthly subscription fees on viewers—requiring only a one-time consumer investment of approximately ₹2,000 for an unencrypted Ku-band dish antenna and set-top box—commercial satellite networks rely on the platform to achieve mass rural and Tier-2/Tier-3 viewership.
THE DD FREE DISH COMMERCIAL MONETIZATION CYCLE:
[ Unencrypted Satellite Transponder Capacity (GSAT-15 / 93.5° East) ]
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[ External E-Auction Agency Platform (Procured under ₹32L RFP) ]
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[ Multi-Round Ascending Dynamic Auction (Bucket A+, A, B, C, D, R) ]
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[ Private Commercial Broadcasters Place Annual Bids (₹10 Cr – ₹20+ Cr / Slot) ]
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[ Prasar Bharati Reinvests Commercial Carriage Revenue into Public Broadcasting ]
Under Prasar Bharati’s categorized auction framework, available transponder slots are segmented into competitive buckets based on genre and language:
- Bucket A+: Hindi General Entertainment Channels (GEC).
- Bucket A: Hindi Movie Channels.
- Bucket B: Hindi Music, Sports, Bhojpuri GEC/Movies, and Hindi Teleshopping.
- Bucket C: Hindi News and Current Affairs Channels.
- Bucket D: All other remaining Hindi genres, Devotional/Spiritual, and Urdu channels.
- Bucket R: Regional language satellite channels across southern, eastern, and western languages.
In recent annual auction cycles, fierce competitive bidding among private broadcast networks—such as Zee Entertainment, Culver Max Entertainment (Sony), Viacom18/JioStar, and leading Hindi news networks—has driven single A+ slot bids well past ₹15 crore to ₹20 crore per annum, generating collective revenues of over ₹1,000 crore during peak allocation phases. The third-party technical platform must deliver absolute operational stability, cryptographic bid logging, and zero system downtime during these fast-paced, multi-round dynamic bidding rounds.
Expansion beyond satellite: Incorporating “other platforms”
A notable inclusion in the latest tender is the explicit mandate covering “other platforms” alongside the primary DD Free Dish satellite service.
Over the past two years, Prasar Bharati has systematically modernized its digital distribution architectures, expanding into Over-The-Top (OTT) streaming, digital audio broadcasting via Akashvani apps, and prospective Direct-to-Mobile (D2M) broadcasting trials.
By contracting an agency capable of conducting e-auctions across multiple digital and broadcast platforms, Prasar Bharati is laying the procurement groundwork to:
- Monetize Digital Real Estate: Auctioning sponsored content slots, digital channel positioning, and dynamic ad insertions on its emerging public streaming applications.
- Frequency and Multiplex Allocations: Structuring automated bidding for upcoming regional FM transmitter allocations and digital radio multiplex channels under Akashvani.
- Flexible Mid-Year Allotments: Rapidly auctioning short-term and pro-rata vacant slots when private satellite broadcasters surrender or forfeit carriage rights during the annual cycle.
Technical compliance and Make in India mandate
In accordance with central public procurement reforms, the tender enforces strict localization and governance parameters:
- Sovereign Data Storage and Integrity: The e-auction portal must be hosted in secure, Indian-based data centers empanelled by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY). All bidding data, transaction logs, and IP access records must remain strictly within Indian territorial boundaries.
- Cybersecurity Protocols: The software platform must undergo Third-Party Security Audits and obtain certification from Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) empanelled auditors to protect against distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) disruptions, unauthorized proxy bids, and data manipulation.
- Domestic Preference: The RFP excludes international bidding consortiums, applying the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) guidelines to favor Indian Class-I and Class-II local suppliers, ensuring domestic tech firms build sovereign public auction capacity.
What could happen next
- Pre-bid conference clarifications: Technical representatives from Indian IT services and e-auction specialists will attend the October 8 pre-bid session at Mandi House to seek operational clarity on concurrent user load limits, slot reserve price mechanics, and API integration requirements.
- Vendor empanelment by November: Following the October 22 bid opening, technical evaluations and reverse financial bidding are expected to conclude by early November 2026, enabling the onboarded agency to prepare for the upcoming annual DD Free Dish mega-auctions scheduled for early 2027.
- Broadcaster channel realignments: Private television networks will monitor the final onboarding of the e-auction platform as they finalize their programming budgets and annual carriage fee allocations for the next broadcasting fiscal year.
Frequently asked questions
What is the purpose of Prasar Bharati’s ₹32 lakh tender?
The tender was floated by the Directorate General of Doordarshan to appoint an external agency to operate and manage the technical e-auction platform used to allocate channel slots on DD Free Dish and other Prasar Bharati digital platforms.
What is DD Free Dish and why do channels bid for slots on it?
DD Free Dish is India’s only free-to-air direct-to-home (DTH) satellite service, owned and operated by public broadcaster Prasar Bharati. Because it reaches more than 45 million households without requiring monthly subscription charges, commercial private TV channels bid tens of crores of rupees annually in e-auctions to secure carriage and reach its vast rural and semi-urban audience.
When will the bids for the e-auction agency tender open?
The pre-bid meeting is scheduled for October 8, 2026, at Doordarshan Bhawan in New Delhi, and technical bids are slated to be opened on October 22, 2026, at 1:00 PM IST.
Who is eligible to bid for this tender?
Participation is restricted to domestic Indian entities that comply with the government’s Make in India procurement guidelines. Bidders must be registered on Prasar Bharati’s e-procurement portal, possess a Class-III Digital Signature Certificate, and furnish an Earnest Money Deposit of ₹64,000.
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