The recently concluded annual e-auction for the placement of television channels on DD FreeDish, the free-to-air DTH satellite platform of the public broadcaster, saw a new benchmark being set. With the value of the slots on the platform being auctioned at more than a thousand crore rupees for the first time, the FreeDish e-auction has underscored the importance of the platform for nationwide reach to more than five crore households.
Over the years, the FreeDish DTH platform has emerged as a public good of national importance with its noteworthy role during the Covid-19 pandemic making available several educational channels 24x7 while schools and institutes of higher education remained shut. The journey of FreeDish since the early 2000s has, however, not been
