*Ot*FM auctions raise Rs 457 cr,New Media bags 27, Bennet Coleman 12
Shuchi Bansal & Anjan Mitra in New Delhi
With the final round of the FM radio auctions concluding in the capital today, the government is laughing all the way to the bank with nearly Rs 457.46 crore as licence fee in its kitty.
At the end of the auction today, Zee TV-owned New Media Broadcasting emerged as the largest player in FM broadcasting. Of a total of 40 FM frequencies it had applied for, it managed to win 27.
Bennet Coleman & Co managed to get 12 frequencies out of the 36 that it had bid for.
Interestingly, while media groups like Living Media (three frequencies) and Observer Network (eight frequencies) concentrated on winning frequencies in the metros, Zee TV opted for larger reach - into the smaller towns both in the north and south of India.
In the north it won licences for Agra, Allahabad, Varanasi and Chandigarh. With a presence in Trivandrum, Trichy, Chennai in the south. Bennett Coleman (which was earlier operating the Times FM) has won frequencies both in metros like Delhi, Mumbai and Calcutta and in non-metro centres like Lucknow, Bhopal and Pune.
The private players who forked out huge premiums for the radio frequencies, claim that the high value of the licences may render the private radio business unviable and whip up controversies which still haunt the telecom sector.
-BS (Mar 16,00) |
