NEW DELHI: Bidding has begun to slow down even though the number of channels being bid for has gone up on the sixteenth day of the e-auction for the first batch of FM Phase III cities as the cumulative provisional winning price touched Rs 1090 crore at the end of the 64th round.

With this, a total of 92 channels in 56 cities became provisional winning channels against their aggregate reserve price of about Rs 451 crore. Thus, the summation of provisional winning prices surpassed the cumulative reserve price of the corresponding 92 channels by Rs 638.71 Crore or 141.5%.

The cumulative provisional winning price exceeded the total reserve price of the first batch of 135 FM channels in 69 existing cities - Rs 550.18 crore - by almost 98.1 per cent.

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

The thirteen cities for which bids have still not come are Asansol, Gulbarga, Mangalore, Mysore, Puducherry, Rajahmundry, Siliguri, Tiruchy, Tirunveli, Tirupati, Tuticorin, Vijaywada and Warangal.

The demand in most cities fell by up to three per cent and by four per cent below the excess demand at the price in 60th round in Hyderabad.

The Percentage Price Increment (in INR) applicable for the Next Clock Round was just one in Bengaluru, Chandigarh, Cochin, Guwahati, Jodhpur, Kanpur, Mumbai and Nashik.

The highest provisional winning price in Delhi remained the same for the second consecutive day – Rs 1,69,16,89,481 (for just one channel), but rose marginally in Mumbai – Rs 1,14,66,02,200 (for two channels) and Bengaluru with Rs 1,09,25,45,545.

Among cities recording more than Rs 10 crore, it rose marginally in Cochin - Rs 14, 18, 98,679 and Nasik - Rs 10, 72, 57,418.

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

 The following Table summarises first sixteen days of bidding:

The ongoing auction is a Simultaneous Multiple Round Ascending (SMRA) e-auction which is being conducted online from Auction Control Room No. 404 B Wing, Shastri Bhawan by C 1 e-auctioneers.