NEW DELHI: Clocking just one round as compared to four daily rounds on the 33^rd day, it was announced that the first stage of the FM Phase III channel allocation stage was being closed with 97 channels in 56 cities became provisional winning channels with cumulative provisional winning price of about Rs 1156.9 crore against their aggregate reserve price of about Rs 459.8 crore.

While, there were no bids for FM channels in thirteen cities, there was no activity even for the smaller 31 cities that have so far got bids of Rs one to Rs 9 crore.

However, the government – which had said the e-auction would continue as long as there was even one bidder - claimed that over 71 per cent channels of the first batch were provisionally won by bidders.

Thus, the summation of provisional winning prices surpassed the cumulative reserve price of the corresponding 97 channels by Rs 697.05 crore or 151.58 per cent.

Overall, cumulative provisional winning price exceeded the total reserve price of the first batch - Rs 550.18 crore - by Rs 606.72 crore or 110.27 per cent. 

At the top are Delhi – Rs 1,69,16,89,481 for one channel; Mumbai – Rs 1,22,81,31,349 for two channels; and Bengaluru - Rs 1,09,25,45,545 for one channel.

The position is the same for other cities having got bids of more than Rs ten crore, 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, Varanasi at Rs 17,49,18,947, Cochin - Rs 15,04,83,548, Nashik - Rs 14,66,24,270; Lucknow - Rs 14,00,55,000; and Jodhpur at Rs 11,44,39,124. Kolhapur is not very far behind with a bid above Rs nine crore – Rs 9,44,24,48.

Cities like Guwahati, Bhubaneswar and Jodhpur witnessed robust bidding activity with provisionally winning price being as high as 800 per cent over the reserve price for their channels. Overall, 18 cities got provisionally won bidders for their channels at prices more than double the respective reserve prices. The winning price rose by more than 100 per cent above their respective reserve prices in Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Aurangabad, Bengaluru, Jaipur, Jodhpur, Kolhapur, Nashik, Patna, Pune, Rourkela and Varanasi, all of which got provisional winning bidders at prices more than double the respective reserve prices.

The government said e-auction of the first batch consists of two stages - Channel allocation stage, and Frequency allocation stage. After the Channel allocation stage, the Frequency allocation stage will commence tomorrow.

During this stage, the provisional winning bidders will be allowed to select FM Frequency for the winning channel from the frequencies already identified in the respective city and as mentioned in the Notice Inviting Applications of 2 March 2015 read with its subsequent amendments.

Frequency selection preference would be based upon the rank of the bidders: that is, Rank 1 bidder would have the first preference to choose from the frequencies already identified. It may be noted that all the identified frequencies were made available for selection and included in the NIA.

After the e-Auction process is over, the government will notify the list of successful bidders.

The following Table summarises 32 days of bidding during channel allocation stage:

Cities with more than double Provisional Winning Price vis-a-vis Reserve Price 

The e-Auction for the first batch of private FM Radio phase III channels began on 27 July, 2015.

Log on to www.radioandmusicbiz.com for more.