Top Hindi channels to pull out of DD Free dish

DD Free Dish may run into a dead-end as some of the top broadcasters have decided to pull out their Hindi mass entertainment channels from the free-to-air platform owned by public broadcaster Prasar Bharati. The move by broadcasters like Star India, Zee Entertainment Enterprises NSE -1.57 % (ZEE), Sony Pictures Networks India (SPN) and Viacom18 will affect over 22 million subscribers, who will not be able to watch popular channels such as Zee Anmol, Star Utsav, Rishtey Cineplex, Star Bharat and Sony Pal.

“In one of the rare occasions, the top four broadcasters have reached a consensus to not show any Hindi general entertainment channel or movie channel on Free Dish. This is to make sure that the existing cable and DTH customers don’t shift to Free Dish,” said a top executive from one of the broadcasters, who did not wish to be identified.