Type Public Headquarters New Delhi | Founded 16 December 2004 Area served India | |
Industry Satellite television service Owner Prasar Bharati,
Ministry of Information and Broadcasting | ||
DD Free Dish (previously known as DD Direct Plus) is an Indian free-to-air digital direct-broadcast satellite television service owned and operated by the state-controlled public service broadcaster Prasar Bharati (Doordarshan). It is the only free-to-air satellite television service in India. Initially, NSS-6 satellite at 95° was used to broadcast channels. After upgradation, INSAT-4B satellite at 93.5° was used to broadcast 64 FTA MPEG-2 Channels, and 29 radio channels.With the latest upgradation, to GSAT-15 at 93.5° on 1 February 2016, the present capacity is likely to be enhanced to 104 SDTV channels and 40 Radio channels in near future with the introduction of new MPEG-4, DVB-S2 stream. New logo for DD Free Dish was added on its transponders on 29 October 2014. The e-auction is being conducted by C1 India Pvt. Ltd., Gurgaon on behalf of Prasar Bharati.
Expansion of DD Free Dish has been carried out from time to time. The present capacity is likely to be enhanced to 104 SD TV channels and 40 Radio channels in near future with the introduction of new MPEG-4, DVB-S2 stream. DD Free Dish has plans of encrypting channels but maintaining the Free To Air. This will enable Free Dish to gauge the exact number of households relying on Free Dish as encrypted set top boxes (STB) will only be available with authorised dealers.