Most of these category C and D cities have one channel on offer, other than Bhopal, Guwahati, Panaji, Patna and Srinagar where two frequencies are up for grabs.

Three companies - Bennett Coleman & Co, Zee Telefilms and New Media Broadcasting - have bid for all the 29 cities and the 40 centres on offer. Delhi-based Vertex Broadcasting, floated by the Burmans, have bid for 19 cities including Agra, Allahabad, Aurangabad, Bhopal, Chandigarh, Jaipur, Jalandhar, Jamnagar, Kanpur, Ludhiana, Madurai, Mysore, Nagpur, Panaji, Rajkot, Trichy, Varanasi and Tirunelveli.

Chandigarh has seen the biggest draw of lots with 13 bidders for one channel. Those in the fray include Indian Express Newspapers, Living Media, Ispat industries-backed Music Broadcast, The Hindustan Times group and RP Goenka-promoted CarnivalInvestment.

Kanpur-based publishing house Jagran Prakashan has bid for all major cities of Uttar Pradesh including Lucknow, Agra, Allahabad, Kanpur and Varanasi, apart from Patna. The publishing house recently withdrew its bid for Delhi.Reliance group-backed Observer Network has bid for six cities including Bhubaneshwar, Guwahati, Jamnagar, Rajkot, Bhopal and Panaji.

The Hindustan Times group has bid for five cities including Jalandhar, Jaipur, Ludhiana and Patna. The group had earlier shown interest in Lucknow and Delhi.

The BPL-group backed Indigo Radio has bid for Cochin, Coimbatore, Madurai and Panaji. Delhi-based Modi Entertainment Network has bid for Bhopal and Nagpur. Nimbus Communications has opted only for Kanpur among group D and C cities. Nimbus had earlier contented for Bangalore, Hyderabad, Indore and Pune, apart from Delhi, Chennai and Mumbai.

Promient players from the south include Sun TV-backed Sumangali Publications which has bid for Cochin, Trichy, Tirunelveli, Coimbatore andTrivandrum. UB group-promoted Udaya TV and Chennai-based Asianet have bid for Mysore and Trivandum respectively. In the second round, Udaya TV had bid for Bangalore, Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam.

Another Chennai-based company Aban Informatics has opted for Cochin and Coimbatore. Aban had bid for Chennai in the first round.

The Eros group-backed companies Sitara Radio and Kismat Radio have bid for Ludhiana and Rajkot respectively. Sitara had ealier bid for Lucknow while Kismal Radio had gone for Bangalore and Hyderabad.

There are nine contenders for Cochin, Jaipur, Ludhiana and Rajkot. An interesting contender for Ludhiana is the high-profile theatre personality Amir Raza Hussain who has bid through Delhi-based India FM Radio.