New Delhi, Nov 19: Zee promoter Subhash Chandra has bid for 80 FM radiochannels in 40 cities through two companies - Zee Telefilms and New MediaBroadcasting Pvt Ltd. As per the conditions laid down in the tenderdocuments, a company can only have one channel in each city. Taken bysurprise, several industry players called the move unethical and said thematter should be further scrutinised.Officials, however, refused to comment before further scrutiny of the equityholdings of the companies.
The government will issue the licences for FM radio broadcasting in Delhi,Mumbai, Calcutta and Chennai within the next 40 days. The bids for fourmetros were opened on Friday in which 38 companies bid for 43 FM radiobroadcast channels on offer.
Officials said scrutiny of applications of individual companies will beginsoon. Officials indicated that it was take at least a month for the finallist to emerge.
Meanwhile, Uttar Pradesh-based media group Jagran Prakashan has withdrawnfrom the Delhi centre. Delhi was the only metro centre the company had bidfor. It has bid for several cities in Uttar Pradesh.
The bids for group-II and group-III cities will be opened on November 24 andNovember 29 respectively. In all, the government has got 360 bids for 108channels to be set up in 40 cities across the country.
Delhi, with 11 channels up for grab, has topped the list with 28 bids.Mumbai followed closely with 26 bids for 10 channels. Calcutta and Chennai,each of which have 11 channels on offer, had 13 and 20 bids respectively.
In the fray for Delhi are several leading corporates and media outfitsincluding the Indian Express Newspapers, Bennett Coleman & Company, ZeeTelefilms, The Hindustan Times, Living Media group, Hathway Investment, JainStudio, Radio Mid-day, Observer Network Ltd, Indigo Radio and NimbusCommunications.
Eleven companies have bid for all the four metros. These include BennettColeman, 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, AbanInformatics, Mid-Day Broadcasting and Raj Telefilms are among those who havebid for Chennai only. Among those who have bid for Calcutta include DakshinBharat Petrochem and Magic Radio.
In case of Group II centres, the government has received 14 bids forAhmedabad, 20 for Bangalore, 16 for Hyderabad, 9 for Indore, 13 for Lucknow,16 for Pune and for 6 bids for Visakhapatnam.
Among the Group III 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. Cuttack, Shillong and Jabalpur has received 3 bids.It is only after a gap of nearly two years that private sector is makingentry into FM radio broadcasting.
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.