Together, NBF and NBDA decide to boycott the DD Free Dish auctions.
Sumit Rawat
Nearly all of the national and regional news stations in the country are represented by the News Broadcasters Federation (NBF) and the News Broadcasters & Digital Association (NBDA), which have decided not to take part in the ongoing DD Free Dish MPEG-2 e-auction.
NBF and NBDA claimed that the auction process was biased against all news and current affairs channels in a letter to I&B Minister Anurag Thakur.
The letter stated that we were at a relative disadvantage to other genres since there were fewer spots available and due of the way the auction was set up.
The letter also emphasized the lack of a sound scientific foundation for DDFD viewership estimation.
"We predict that this will make it prohibitively expensive for us to bid for slots on Freedish, which would be against our shared interest. We urgently want a meeting with you and any Prasar Bharati personnel you may think necessary to resolve this as soon as possible."
The statement added that neither NBF nor NBDA would be permitted to take part in the ongoing competition for the news category until the issue was rectified.
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