NEW DELHI: The Government is poised to mop up Rs. 1,134 crore from allocation of frequencies in the second phase of FM broadcasting in the country. While Rs. 907 crore will come to it from the amounts pledged for new frequencies allotted in this phase as one-time entry fee, Rs. 227 crore will be raised as migration fee from existing players when they switch to the new regime.

These figures were released by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry on Friday at the close of the fifth and last round of bidding of frequencies for FM Phase-II. As of date, 299 frequencies across the country have been allotted; 278 in this phase and 21 in the last phase.

Of the 64 frequencies on offer — all in the southern States — only nine did not find any takers. Friday's exercise raked in Rs. 177 crore. Kochi attracted the highest bids. Reliance Entertainment's Adlabs Films Ltd. topped the charts quoting Rs. 10.11 crore; followed closely by The Malayala Manorama Company Limited at Rs. 9.6 crore and The Mathrubhumi Printing & Publishing Company Limited at Rs. 9.01 crore.

Bidding through two companies — Kal Radio Private Limited and South Asia FM Private Limited — the Sun Group has emerged the leader of the pack in terms of number of frequencies. It has picked up 67 frequencies from this phase and had four in FM-I. In Friday's race for the southern listenership living in the smaller towns and cities, it has got a frequency in 15 of the 19 centres where radio stations were on offer.

The four centres where it does not have a frequency are Coimbatore, Kochi, Tirunelveli and Visakhapatanam.

Since the FM policy mandates that no company can have more than 15 per cent of the total number of frequencies allotted, the Sun Group and Adlabs will have to surrender some of their stations as the former has a total of 71 frequencies and the latter 49.

In Coimbatore, where the bidding crossed the Rs. 6 crore mark, the three frequencies available have gone to Star-backed Music Broadcast Private Limited (MBPL), Entertainment Network (India) Limited (ENIL) of Radio Mirchi fame and Malar Publications Private Limited.

Another centre which saw big money being quoted was Madurai, where a frequency each has been allotted to Kal Radio, ENIL and Malar. Tiruchi was among the six centres where all frequencies were not taken. Of the four on offer in Tiruchi, only two were allotted to Kal Radio and Malar.

Of the three centres in Karnataka, only Mangalore found takers for all four frequencies — Kal Radio, Adlabs, ENIL and Century Communication Ltd. Adlabs, MBPL and ENIL have got a frequency each in Visakhapatnam while Vijayawada — also in Andhra Pradesh — will have Kal Radio and ENIL.

As was the case with Kerala's commercial capital, the State's political centre, Thiruvananthapuram, saw some intense bidding after which Kal Radio, Mathrubhumi, ENIL and Adlabs walked away with frequencies.

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