NEW DELHI: Interest appeared to be flaking off on the nineteenth day of the bidding in the e-auction for the first batch of FM Phase III cities with the cumulative provisional winning price rising very marginally to touch about Rs 1128 crore at the end of the 76^th round.

With this, a total of 94 channels in 56 cities became provisional winning channels against their aggregate reserve price of about Rs 459 crore.

Thus, the total bids of the provisional winning prices surpassed the cumulative reserve price of the corresponding 94 channels by Rs 669.24 crore or 145.8 per cent.

The cumulative provisional winning price has thus risen over the total reserve price of the first batch of 135 FM channels in 69 existing cities - Rs 550.18 crore – by 577.92 crore or 105 per cent.

The Auction Activity Requirement rose to 100 per cent after the 59^th round on 14 August, after being 90 per cent after the 37th round on 7 August.

Despite the slowdown, Information and Broadcasting Ministry sources said auction will continue as long as bids are received for any of the 135 channels.

The provisional winning price in the top three cities reflected no change: Delhi – Rs 1,69,16,89,481 (for just one channel); Mumbai – Rs 1, 22, 81, 31,349(for two channels); and Bengaluru - Rs 1,09,25,45,545.

Among cities recording more than Rs 10 crore, it rose marginally only in Nashik - Rs 14, 66, 24,270. But Kolhapur appears to be the next to enter the Rs 10-crore club with Rs 9,34,89,594 though cities like Kanpur, Rajkot, Amritsar and Aurangabad do not seem to be far behind.

Chennai - Rs 53,38,83,479; Ahmedabad at Rs 42,68,76,267, Pune at Rs 42,03,50,268; Jaipur – Rs 28,34,98,387; Chandigarh at Rs 19,04,72,374; Hyderabad at Rs 18,00,00,000, Patna – Rs 17,89,83,876, Cochin - Rs 15,04,83,548, and Lucknow - Rs 14,00,55,000 remained static.

The following Table summarises nineteen days of bidding:

The e-Auction for the first batch of private FM Radio phase III channels began on 27 July, 2015. The auction is being closely monitored and supervised by senior officials to maintain integrity of the process.