Dxers Guide-282 Weekly Media Scene in India. Published by Ardic DX Club, India.
Why foreign players are keen on FM radio in India? Despite a slow and bad start thanks to enthusiasm-killing high licence fees during the first round of bidding in 2000, the private FM radio segment is finally hotting up.Two deals have taken place in quick succession on the eve of the bidding for the second phase of FM radio expansion. One - Radio Mid Day - has found a suitor in BBC Worldwide which is investing Rs 318.50 million. -Indiantelevision.com 04/01 NDTV consortium buys India Today out of FM Aroon Purie-promoted Living Media Group has exited FM radio business by divesting its entire holding in Red FM to a group of investors that includes NDTV News, promoted by Prannoy Roy. Other members of the consortium buying Red FM, which is present in Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata, are Hyderabad-based Value Labs and Malaysian broadcasting company Astro. -Business Standard 04/01 BBC to invest Rs 31.8cr in Radio Mid Day Mid-day Multimedia has signed an agreement with BBC Worldwide Holdings BV to invest Rs 31.85 crore in the equity shares of Radio Mid Day West (India).According to a release issued by Mid-day to the BSE today, Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, who is a partner of Rare Enterprises, has also entered into an agreement with the company to invest Rs 10 crore in Radio Mid Day West (India). -Business Standard 04/01 FM phase II: govt. may collect Rs.1.35 bn in licence fee The government is likely to collect Rs. 1.35 billion as one-time entry fee for the licences for 338 FM radio stations in 91 cities, the bidding for which starts on 6 January 2006This is nearly half of the total investment of Rs. 2.6 billion the phase II of FM licensing will attract. Additionally, the government may earn a revenue of over Rs. 500 million per year through the four per cent revenue share scheme it announced in July last year. -Indiantelevision.com 04/01 NRIs plan to launch multi-lingual TV channel A group of non resident Indians (NRIs) are getting together to float a multi-lingual entertainment channel. The company, Manvik Vinjnan Communications Ltd (MVCL), will be based out of Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. "The promoters are NRIs based out of Singapore and the Middle East," says the company's managing director Rajesh Narayanan. The channel, Bhaarath TV, will offer programmes in Malayalam, Hindi, English, Tamil, Telugu, and Kannada. "We will be investing Rs 500 million towards the channel," says MVCL executive director Rajan Mannaar. -Indiantelevision.com 04/01 Sound Perfect: 85 companies to bid for 337 FM Radio stations With the I&B Ministry declaring the third and final list of bidders for FM radio and reducing the total no of FM stations up for bid by one, the list of contenders for the Great Indian Radio Drama is complete. There will be 85 companies bidding for 337 FM radio stations in 91 cities across the country. In the first and second lists, the Ministry had notified the name of 70 and 14 companies, respectively, who had qualified for financial bidding. The Ministry has notified the name of only one company, New Mount Trading and Investment Company Ltd, in the third and final list of eligible bidders. -Exchange4media.com 05/01 Big investors may tune into FM radio Sector set to get Rs 500 cr investments in 12-18 months. Indias private FM radio sector is expected to get foreign investments of Rs 500 crore in the next 12 to 18 months. According to industry players, now that the sector is open to foreign direct investment and the government has moved from licence fees to a revenue-share regime, the sector has become attractive to investors. -Business Standard 06/01 Cheer for listeners as FM radio bids open today Good news for all you radio listeners in Delhi! The D-Day for qualified FM radio bidders for the frequencies in 13 A+ and A category cities. Financial bids will be opened in New Delhi today to know which bidder has won what among the 64 frequencies on offer across Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Surat, Pune, Nagpur, Jaipur, Lucknow and Kanpur. Which means that you could very soon have your own favourite local-local station to tune into like every other major city in the world! -The Times of India 06/01 First campus radio in Kerala The first private FM (frequency modulated) community radio station in the State was launched at a function at Vyloppilly Samskrithi Bhavan. Radio DC FM 90.4 will broadcast from the media school run by D.C. Kizhekkkemuri Foundation at the Kinfra Film and Video Park at Kazhakoottam. -The Hindu 07/01 Stay with HT on FM now Nearly 58 radio stations spread across 13 cities -- including the four metros and boomtowns like Bangalore and Hyderabad -- saw a horde of bidders vying to bag the rights.Twenty-five companies, led by the likes of HT Music, Adlabs, Radio City and Radio Today, won stations by forking out Rs 568 crore for 53 frequencies. HT Music won frequencies in Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata and Bangalore. -Hindustan Times 07/01 BBC arm wins seven FM radio licences in India BBC WORLDWIDE, the broadcasters commercial arm, acquired FM radio licences covering seven of Indias biggest cities yesterday in the units first move into overseas markets. BBC and its local partner, Mid-Day Multimedia, won licences to operate FM radio services in Bombay, Delhi, Bangalore, Madras, Calcutta, Ahmedabad and Pune. The successful bids came just days after the BBC announced that it had bought a 20 per cent stake in Radio Mid-Day West, a subsidiary of Mid-Day Multimedia, the Bombay-listed media group. -Timesonlin.co.uk 07/01 BBC, Murdoch queue up for Radio India Indian radio, the country's last mass medium to be freed for private participation, is set to draw investments of $581 million in a second round of expansion from companies including the British Broadcasting Corp. For long the government's preferred means for publicizing messages on family planning, gender equality and farming practices, radio is becoming the conduit for selling products from mutual fund subscriptions to luxury apartments as stations turn to music and entertainment to attract audiences. -The Financial Express 06/01 7 firms get FM licences for B'lore In the near future, Bangaloreans will get to tune into a lot more music and of course much much more of the never-ending chatter of radio jockeys. Even as Bangalore roads get clogged with endless traffic jams, one will at least be able to tune into a variety of FM stations as seven more stations will try to grab your attention. Radio Indigo (of Rajeev Chandrasekhar), Radio Mirchi, Radio Mid-Day, Adlabs, HT Music, Kal Radio are among the firms which have made successful bids to operate these services in the city. -Business Standard 07/01 India Today group bids for 9 FM radio stations The India Today group, which is participating in the second phase of private FM radio licensing, today said it has bid for licences in nine cities including Delhi and Mumbai. The group, which early this month sold its FM radio business to a consortium of NDTV, Malaysias Astro and Hyderabad-based Value Lab said that it was hopeful of prospects in this round. -The Hindu 07/01 FM Phase II expansion: HT Music saved Rs 154 cr in Mumbai due to revenue sharing regime With the first round of bidding for Phase II expansion of FM Radio for Category A+ and A cities out in the open, some interesting calculations reveal that HT Music, the highest bidder amongst A+ category cities, might just have saved a whopping Rs 154 cr as compared to the highest bidder in Phase I, thanks to the new government policy of migrating to the revenue sharing regime from the erstwhile licence fee regime. Under the new revenue sharing regime, the permission holder will have to pay an annual fee to the government at the rate of 4 per cent of gross revenue for each year or at the rate of 10 per cent of the Reserve One Time Entry Fee (OTEF) limit for the concerned city, whichever is higher. -Exchange4media 09/01 India to launch satellite for multimedia broadcasts India announced plans to launch by 2008 a satellite capable of offering multimedia broadcasts to mobile phones and audio-video receivers fitted in vehicles. The project to design, develop and launch GSAT-6/INSAT-4E, a multimedia mobile satellite system, at an estimated cost of Rs.2.69 billion ($58.5 million) was cleared by a meeting of the cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. -Dx_India.com 09/01 Compiled by Jaisakthivel.T, President of Ardic Dx Club 12-1-2006 Address for Communication: T.Jaisakthivel No: 3, First Floor, 21, Nathens Arcade, Malaviya Avenue, L.B Road, chennai-600041, Tamil Nadu, India. 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