Doordarshan has earned Rs 23.2 crore from the 21st online e-auction of six slots to Indian television channels on its free-to-air DTH platform Freedish.

DD's target is to touch 112 television channels on Freedish over the next few months.

Against a reserve price of Rs 3.7 crore per slot for the online e-auction, DD earned as much as Rs 4.1 crore from Colors Rishtey, whereas Star Utsav got its slot for Rs 3.9 crore.

Doordarshan sources told Indiantelevision.com that the other slots went to Zee Anmol, Zee Sangam, Housefull Movies and B4U Music for Rs 3.8 crore each.

However, as per information available with this website, the bid amount had gone up to Rs 4.2 crore in one of the earlier e-auctions.

DD sources also said that while Freedish may be encrypted to keep a tab on the number of subscribers, it would continue to remain free-to-air.

The e-Auction was conducted by C1 India Pvt. Ltd., Noida on behalf of Prasar Bharati, thus marking a change in the auctioneer.

The reserve price in the 15th e-auction was Rs 3 crore and was raised to Rs 3.7 crore in the 16th auction.

The six channels were part of Freedish but had to re-bid as their contract had expired. Consequently, Freedish retains 64 channels including DD's channels and Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha TV.

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