Prasar Bharati CEO had earlier this year said that the goal was to reach 112 TV channels in one or two years when FreeDish moves from MPEG2 to MPEG4 for which official approval is still pending.
Deputy Director General of Doordarshan CK Jain said while 10 television channels were returned and four channels won bid to fill vacant slots.
Doordarshan had a reserve price of Rs 3.7 million rupees per slot for mail online auction set (as in the last auction), but all offers were between Rs 4 to Rs 4.2 million rupees.
National Sadhana, a new operator, provide the highest at Rs 4.2 million rupees. In addition, new channels will provide Rs 4.1 million rupees and four channels offer Rs 4 million rupees.
The other new players are Sony-Mix, the largest magical Ganga, which is a new channel Reliance Group Bhojpuri and Home Shop18.
The channels whose license expired and was renewed, are: ABP News, India TV, Cinema TV, 9XM, Dabbang, Masti, Chardhi Kala Times, B4U Movies, Maha movies.
Jain said that Freedish is currently in MPEG2 mode but latter it will be encrypted to MPEG4 to keep a tab on the number of participants, but remain free-to-air.
Currently Freedish offers 64 channels, including their own channels and Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha TV.
