The Hindu Business Line : Northern towns may add Rs 84 cr to Govt's FM radio revenues

The Government is likely to garner about Rs 84 crore for allowing private FM radio channels to commence operations in the smaller towns of the northern region as one-time entry fee (OTEF).

About 76 frequencies in 21 centres in States such as Jammu & Kashmir, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Chandigarh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Uttaranchal were up for grabs. The Government received 104 bids, of which 64 companies qualified. Two companies - Anil Ambani-promoted Adlabs Films and South Asia FM — bid for all the frequencies.

According to sources, while Adlabs did not get licences for Varanasi and Karnal, South Asia managed to bag 10 stations. The Bhaskar Group that bid under Synergy Media has won about seven licences, including four centres in Rajasthan, Chandigarh, Jalandhar and Amritsar.

Entertainment Network India Ltd, which bid aggressively for the A+ and A cities, bid for just five stations and managed to get two of them. BAG Films too won four out of the seven frequencies it had bid for — Shimla, Patiala, Karnal and Hissar.

Incidentally, Chandigarh attracted the highest bid, with Adlabs shelling out about Rs 15 crore followed by the Bhaskar Group willing to pay Rs 10 crore. Adlabs is the only operator in Srinagar after it bid for Rs 61 lakh. Only two bids had been received for four frequencies in the city. Here, South Asia FM did not qualify because its bid was less than 25 per cent of the highest bidder, the minimum amount to be eligible for bidding.

Frequencies allotted in other smaller centres such as Agra, Jalandhar and Amritsar were in the Rs 2.5-3 crore range while the highest bid for Shimla stood at Rs 1.12 crore.

Mr Rajesh Sawhney, President, Reliance Entertainment, said, "We have managed to get the key cities of Punjab, including Chandigarh. These markets are under-served by radio and we see great advertising potential here, especially from local advertisers." He said that the bidding was "rational and very close".

During the financial bids for the metros and larger cities, the Government had managed to collect about Rs 540 crore as OTEF with some aggressive bidding for Mumbai and Delhi.