NEW DELHI: Doordarshan earned Rs 31.3 crore from the auction of eight slots to Indian television channels on its free-to-air DTH platform Freedish in the 22nd e-auction.

The latest e-auction was held on 22 September. DD’s attempt is to touch the target of 112 television channels in the next few months.

Speaking to Indiantelevision.com, DD deputy director general C K Jain said that against the reserve price of Rs 3.7 crore per slot for the online e-auction, it earned the highest figure of Rs 4.2 crore from Sanskaar channel, which has come on to the platform for the first time.

Another channel, which has hopped on to the Freedish platform for the first time is WOW Cinema.

The other channels are: IBN7, Aastha, Aastha Bhajan, News Nation, Bhojpuri Cinema, and Dangal. While these channels were a part of Freedish earlier, they had to re-bid as their contract had expired.

The auction was held barely six weeks after the last e-auction in August, which earned DD Rs 23.2 crore.

Indiantelevision.com has also learnt that the bid amount went up to Rs 4.7 crore in earlier e-auctions.

DD sources said that while Freedish may be encrypted soon from Mpeg 2 to Mpeg4 to keep a tab on the number of subscribers, it would remain free-to-air.

The e-Auction was conducted by C1 India Pvt. Ltd., Noida.   

Currently, Freedish has 64 channels including its own channels, and Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha TV.