The second day of the e-auction of the first batch of the Private FM Radio Phase-III channels witnessed excess demand in 10 cities — Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Bhubaneswar, Chennai, Guwahati, Delhi, Jodhpur, Mumbai, Rourkela and Pune.

At the same time, many cities did not receive any bids at the end of eight rounds of bidding on the second day.

Some of these cities include Varanasi, Vijayawada, Warangal, Ajmer, Asansol, Amritsar, Mangaluru, Mysuru, Puducherry, Shillong, Sholapur, Surat, Siliguri and Tirupati, among others.

The Information and Broadcasting Ministry said that four rounds of bidding were completed on the second day and till date eight rounds of bidding were over. The bidding started on July 27.

In the first batch of the FM Radio e-auction, 135 FM channels in 69 existing cities are up for grabs.

“At the close of the second day of bidding, 79 channels in 55 cities became provisionally winning channels with cumulative provisional winning price of around ₹479 crore, against their aggregate reserve price of about ₹377 crore,” it said in a statement. It added that the auction activity requirement was set at 80 per cent and bidding will re-commence on Wednesday.

Major bids

Bidding in Delhi closed at about ₹48.10 crore, with five bids on the second day up in comparison; the first day’s provisional winning price for the city had closed at about ₹37.41 crore.

Similarly, in Mumbai, provisional winning price closed at ₹55.43 crore with five bids, exceeding the previous day’s provisional winning price of about ₹42 crore. Bengaluru’s provisional winning price closed at ₹30.39 crore with four bids, compared to about ₹25 crore on the first day. Pune’s provisional winning price closed at about ₹19.70 crore with four bids up from about ₹16.21 crore at the end of the first day.

Related Topics
comment COMMENT NOW