Prasar Bharati opens applications for Hindi news channels on Waves OTT

Prasar Bharati has issued a notice inviting Hindi-language news and current affairs national channels to apply for onboarding on the government-owned Waves OTT platform. The platform will only accommodate channels currently available on DD FreeDish. The deadline for applications is set for 24 March 2025, by 5 PM.

The onboarding will be valid for a period of one year, with the condition that channels provide an SCTE-35 ad marker-enabled feed to Prasar Bharati. SCTE-35 is a protocol used to signal the insertion of advertisements, enabling greater control over content insertion points and facilitating targeted advertising.

Prasar Bharati stated that participating channels must indicate the start and end times of advertisement breaks. Successful channels onboarded onto the Waves OTT platform will operate under a revenue-sharing model, with 65% of the net advertisement revenue allocated to the channel and 35% to Prasar Bharati.

The public broadcaster defined net revenue as the revenue earned from the channel after deducting costs incurred by Prasar Bharati, including transcoding, content delivery network (CDN) expenses, and commissions paid to advertising agencies for ad insertion.

Additionally, Prasar Bharati stated that channels with the "highest rate under all time bands" in the news and current affairs category, as per the Bureau of Communications (DAVP) rate card, will be selected for streaming on the platform.

The broadcaster further clarified that advertisements on the onboarded channels will be inserted by Prasar Bharati. If the broadcaster is unable to fill the entire advertisement duration, the remaining time will be used for government promotions or promotional content from streaming channels.

The one-year contract will commence from the date the channel is made available on the Waves OTT platform.