The Hindu : Business : FM broadcast: Adlabs walks home thumbs up

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Saturday, Jan 14, 2006

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FM broadcast: Adlabs walks home thumbs up

Special Correspondent

Centre set to earn Rs. 620 cr. in two rounds of bidding

NEW DELHI: After round two of financial bidding for the second phase of FM broadcasting, the Central Government on Friday was set to earn over Rs. 620 crore from financial bids for 130 frequencies across 34 cities. Friday's exercise brought in Rs. 83.70 crore from 63 frequencies across 21 cities.

Financial bids for 76 frequencies in eight North Indian States — Jammu & Kashmir, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Chandigarh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Uttaranchal — were opened on Friday. This round attracted 104 bids and the highest was for Chandigarh where Reliance Entertainment's Adlabs Films Ltd picked up a frequency for Rs. 15.61 crore, followed by Dainik Bhaskar Group's Synergy Media Entertainment Ltd., which got the only other station available for Rs. 10.51 crore.

There were few takers in Srinagar, Jhansi, Bareilly, Bikaner and Gorakhpur — all of which attracted fewer bids than the number of frequencies available.

Adlabs and South Asia were the key players in this round; bidding for a frequency in each of the 21 cities. Adlabs walked home with the maximum number of frequencies in this round, losing out only a couple of cities. Existing big players such as Entertainment Network (India), Radio Today Broadcasting and Music Broadcast evinced lukewarm interest in this round. In all, 336 frequencies across 90 cities are up for grabs. Financial bids for the remaining cities will be opened on subsequent Fridays till February 3.

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