According to a notification from Prasar Bharati, only channels licenced by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) for downlinking and distribution throughout India are eligible to apply.
The deadline for sending applications is August 12.
Prasar Bharati plans to launch an OTT platform this month to promote Indian values and knowledge through family-friendly content.
Broadcasters who want to place channels on the Prasar Bharati OTT platform must provide SCTE-35/ad marker-enabled feeds of the channel indicating the start and end times of ad breaks.
The public broadcaster will categorise TV channels on the proposed OTT app into four groups based on language and genre, including English news channels, Hindi news channels, non-news channels (all languages), and non-news channels (regional).Prasar Bharati has proposed a 65:35 revenue share for TV channels, with 65% going to the channel and the public broadcaster retaining the rest.The revenue share will be calculated after adjusting Prasar Bharati’s expenses for the channel, including transcoding, CDN costs, and agency commissions.
Successful channels will have to provide a clean feed for streaming on the OTT platform.
Prasar Bharati will insert ads on the OTT stream based on the availability of the SCTE-35 marker at the appropriate juncture.
Unsold commercial time will be used for running promos of Prasar Bharati and its partner channels.
The Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity (DAVP) rate card will be used to rank all applicant TV channels.
Channels with the highest DAVP rates in their respective categories will be allowed to place their channels on the OTT platform.
Prasar Bharati will issue a letter of allotment to the successful channels, who have to sign an agreement within 15 days of receiving it.
