DD FreeDish emerges as a platform for national outreach

Public and National Outreach to the masses across India through television has received a tremendous boost with the DD FreeDish Platform. Staying true to its public service mandate, Prasar Bharati’s DD FreeDish had stood out in serving the people during the pandemic by enabling massive public outreach and dissemination through its platform. While traditional education system struggled due to the pandemic, DD FreeDish had then come to the rescue by providing a platform for multiple educational channels, thus ensuring continuing education to students across India. Recent viewership data has further revealed the central role being played by DD FreeDish as a platform for public and national outreach through television across India.

Of the universe of TV Viewership for Pariksha Pe Charcha 2022, 33% of the viewers watched the event on various TV channels available on the DD FreeDish platform. It is to be noted that several industry estimates have pegged the install base of DD FreeDish at around 20% of the total TV households in India. Further underlining the importance of DD FreeDish for national outreach is the fact that 26% of the viewers of the Republic Day Parade 2022 viewed it on various channels available on DD FreeDish.

Initiated by the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led NDA government in early 2000s, DD FreeDish, then known as DD Direct Plus, was subsequently launched in 2004. After being revamped during the Narendra Modi-led NDA government era, the platform saw rapid growth in recent years. Over the past 7 years, since 2015, the subscription base of DD FreeDish has expanded significantly by more than 100%. According to recent FICCI-EY 2022 report, DD FreeDish has emerged as the largest platform in the TV distribution industry with reach to more than 43 Million households while some analysts estimate it to be even higher.

Prasar Bharati’s DTH service DD FreeDish is the only Free-to-Air (FTA) Direct-To-Home (DTH) Service where the viewer doesn’t have to pay any monthly subscription fee. It only requires a small one time investment of about Rs. 2000 for purchase of the DD FreeDish set-top box.

The current channel line-up on DD FreeDish includes a total of 167 TV channels and 48 Radio channels, including 91 Doordarshan channels (comprising of 51 cobranded educational channels) and 76 private TV channels. BCS Bureau