AIDCF moves TDSAT against DD free dish for violating TRAI norms

The All India Digital Cable Federation (AIDCF) has pointed the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) in the direction of DD Free Dish for allegedly not acting in accordance with the TRAI’s regulation that requires channels to be provided in an encrypted manner, as per an e4m report. It also quoted a reliable source who stated that the Tribunal has issued a notice to Prasar Bharti on the plea of AIDCF, which has nine cable networks under it. The anonymous source mentioned in the report claims that “broadcasters have been providing the channel decoders to DD Free Dish without charging them for the pay channels, which has created a non-level playing field between other platforms.”

Prasar Bharati recently opened the application process for allotment of vacant MPEG-2 slots of DD Free Dish DTH platform for the period of September 9, 2023 to March 31, 2024. The slots will be allotted through an e-auction process to be tentatively held on September 12, 2023.

The process will be conducted in accordance with e-auction methodology for allotment of DD Free Dish slots to private channels. Only satellite channels and companies holding valid permission by the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting can participate. International public broadcasters licensed by the I&B ministry can also participate.

DD Free Dish DTH service is owned and operated by Prasar Bharati. It was launched in December, 2004. DD Free Dish is the only Free-to-Air (FTA) Direct-To-Home (DTH) Service where there is no monthly subscription fee from the viewers. Storyboard18