Doordarshan has decided to e-auction the slots for movies shown on its national channel to increase its revenues and also improve the quality of films shown to its viewers.

Explaining the process, an official said under the new policy, individuals or companies holding legitimate rights to broadcast films on the Doordarshan network will have to produce evidence to qualify as bidders.

The reserve price for the slot will be fixed by taking the average revenue of 52 running weeks.

"After the reserve price is fixed, the market forces will ensure that the best price is obtained for Doordarshan," the official said.

Doordarshan also expects that the quality of films will go up as every slot buyer will like to maximise his revenue and, therefore, invest higher amount of money into buying the telecast rights.

Officials said in order to give adequate time to market the commercial slots of films, the auction will be conducted at least two-four weeks before the telecast.

"Once the auction process is complete, the successful bidder will have to deposit the residual amount within a period of seven days. This will ensure that Doordarshan has got its entire revenues at least two-three weeks in advance of the telecast of the film," the official said.

He said according to the earlier process, Doordarshan would set a fixed amount and a committee would be formed to choose movies on its national channel.

"By going to the e-auction mode, not only will the process become transparent, with the elimination of any possibility of discretion, but it will also lead to much higher level of revenue," he said.

Officials told PTI that the decision, which had been approved by the Prasar Bharati board, had been taken keeping in mind the successful response Doordarshan got after choosing a similar policy for its Direct-to-Home (DTH) platform.

According to sources, Doordarshan would begin auctioning movie slots on its national channel initially and it could be extended to other channels later.

Officials said the new system would also reduce the pressure of marketing on the Mumbai team as substantial effort was spent by them in marketing the film slots.

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