News Summary:
On September 18, 2026, Prasar Bharati invited applications for its 102nd e-auction for vacant MPEG-4 slots on the DD Free Dish platform for the six-month period from October 1, 2026, to March 31, 2027, with the e-auction tentatively scheduled to begin on September 24, 2026. This auction set a reserve price of ₹3 lakh for Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, and Malayalam channels. Previously, on September 17, 2026, the public service broadcaster sought industry feedback on a draft Expression of Interest (EOI) to empanel agencies, studios, and start-ups for AI-generated avatars and other AI content creation, localization, and archive repurposing across its broadcast and digital platforms, including WAVES OTT, Doordarshan, Akashvani, and DD India. On the same day, RailTel Corporation of India received a Letter of Intent (LoI) from Prasar Bharati’s Director General Doordarshan, valued at an estimated Rs 63.15 crore, for providing additional features and services on the existing WAVES OTT platform. This follows questions raised over Rs 3.87 crore paid to five multimedia agencies for preparing thumbnails and metadata for the WAVES platform, which Prasar Bharati launched in November 2024.
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