I&B puts off auction of FM slots once again

NEW DELHI, JANUARY 11: The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has postponed the last dates for submission of bids for 97 FM radio stations in 48 cities for the fourth time in a row, this time following the dismissal of a review petition filed by it on the issue in the Delhi High Court.

The bidding was scheduled for January 14 & 24, after postponing it three times. The I&B Ministry has said that the next dates will be notified in due course, leaving the 27 eligible bidders completely at sea.

Earlier this month, the Ministry had postponed the dates for auction from December 29 and January 10 to January 14 and 24, citing no particular reason. It was being speculated that the dates were extended to accommodate another batch of bidders, following strong lobbying with the Ministry.

The Government invited bids for 97 FM channels on June 8, 2007 in 48 cities including Dehradun, Imphal, Kohima, Port Blair and Sagar which do not have any FM channel. Minimum networth requirements for the companies have been prescribed in the tender to make them eligible to bid for various categories of cities. The method of calculation of networth as prescribed in the tender, requires the applicants to deduct intangible assets amongst others from the book value of assets. On deduction of intangible assets, certain parties were not found eligible for submission of bids.

One such party, M/s Radio Today Broadcasting Limited, filed a writ petition in Delhi High Court and challenged the deduction of one time entry fee already paid by them to the Government during the last phase of bidding. The court, while upholding the method of calculation of networth adopted by the Government, however, allowed the petitioner to make another bid after increasing the networth and directed the Government to consider the same appropriately.

Biggies like Reliance, Unicom (Big 92.7 FM), Entertainment Network India (Radio Mirchi), Sun TV (South Asia FM), and regional players such as Rajasthan Patrika, Ananda Offset Private, Shri Puran Multimedia (Dainik Jagran) and Synergy Media Entertainment (Dainik Bhaskar Group) are in the fray for the FM slots.

The bidding was originally scheduled for November 12 and November 26, but was cancelled just five days before the bidding. The new dates given at that time were December 17 and January 7, which were later changed. These were revised to December 29 and January 10 only to be postponed yet again to January 14 and 24, 2008, which also now stands cancelled.

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