NEW DELHI: The third day of the e-auction for FM Radio channels in Phase III picked up marginally, but there were no bids in as many as fourteen cities, and the provisional winning price was lower than the Clock round Price in some cases.

In all, twelve rounds of e-auction have been completed, including four today, for all the 135 FM channels in the existing 69 cities of the first stage being opened.

At the close of third day of bidding, 80 channels in 55 cities became provisionally winning channels with cumulative provisional winning price of around Rs 549 crore against their aggregate reserve price of about Rs 377 crore.

The Auction began today with Auction Activity Requirement set at 80 per cent. The demand over the price in many cities fell by up to three per cent below the aggregate demand.

The Percentage Price Increment (in INR) applicable for the Next Clock Round was five in the metros of Mumbai and Chennai, and in Bhubaneswar, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad, Guwahati, Rourkela, Jodhpur, and Pune and went up to eight per cent in Dehi.

The highest Provisional winning price – the same as the Clock round price at the start of the eighth round – was in Mumbai – Rs 67,38,51,211, followed closely by Delhi – Rs 65,45,30,159 with both showing sizeable increase compared to the first two days. Hyderabad and Lucknow remained static at Rs 18,00,00,000 and Rs 14,00,55,000, respectively.

Among cities recording more than Rs 10 crore, it rose sizeably in Bengaluru - Rs 36,94,33,296; and was marginally higher in Chennai - Rs 20,98,58,633; Pune – Rs 23,95,41,572; and Ahmedabad - Rs 20,53,34,787. In Cochin at Rs 10,21,81,689 and Chandigarh at Rs 15,61,00,590, it fell just marginally below the clock round price.

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.