New Delhi, Nov 18: As many as 38 companies have bid for 43 FM radiobroadcast channels on offer to the private sector in the four metros --Calcutta, Chennai, Delhi and Mumbai. In all, the government has got 360 bidsfor 108 channels to be set up in 40 cities across the country.The bids for the four metros will be opened on November 19.
Delhi, with 11 channels up for grabs, tops the list with 28 bids. Mumbaifollows closely with 26 bids for 10 channels. Calcutta and Chennai each ofwhich have 11 channels on offer there are 13 and 20 bids, respectively.
In the fray for Delhi are several leading corporates and media outfitsincluding the Indian Express Newspapers, Bennet Coleman & Company Ltd, ZeeTelefilms, The Hindustan Times Ltd, Living Media group, Hathway InvestmentLtd, Jain Studio, Radio Mid-day, Observer Network Ltd, Indigo Radio, NimbusCommunications and Jagran Prakashan.
Eleven companies have bid for all the four metros. These include BennetColeman, Zee Telefilms, New Media Broadcasting Company, New Digital Radio,Vertex Broadcasting Company, New Digital Radio, Observer Network, LivingMedia India, Hind Broadcasting Company, Hitz FM Radio and India FM Radio.Among those who have bid just for Mumbai include Modi Entertainment Network,Radio Star, JM Perfumerry and Radio Mid-Day.
Sumangali Publications, Aban Informatics, Mid-Day Broadcasting and RajTelefilms are among those who have bid for Chennai only.
Among those who have bid for Calcutta include Dakshin Bharat Petrochem andMagic Radio.
In case of Group II centres, the government has received 14 bids forAhmedabad, 20 for Bangalore, 16 for Hyderabad, nine for Indore, 13 forLucknow, 16 for Pune and for Visakhapatnam 6 bids.
Among the Group II cities, 12 bids have come for Chandigarh which has onlyone channel on offer. Nine bids have come for Cochin, Jaipur, Ludhiana, andRajkot. Bhopal which has two channels on offer has got eight bids.
Coimbatore, Kanpur and Panaji have received seven bids.
Five bids have come for Agra, Allahabad, Aurangabad, Tiruchy, Tiruneveli,Trivandrum and Varanasi. Cuttuck, Shillong and Jabalpur has received threebids.
The bids for Group II and III cities will be opened on November 24 andNovember 29, respectively.
The government plans to sell a total of 76 frequencies under a two-partnational plan. All India Radio plans to sell a band from 104.4mhz to 108mhzto private parties against a licence fee of Rs 1.25 crore, Rs 1 crore, Rs 75lakh, Rs 50 lakh and Rs 20 lakh for the A, B, C and D categories ofcities.
The private sector would be making a foray into FM radio broadcasting sectorafter a gap of nearly two years. The government plans to earmark one channelin each centre for educational purpose. If the government is not able tolaunch a FM educational channel on its own, it may throw open the channel toprivate sector at a later date, I&B officials said.
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.