I&B Ministry
Day 28: Varanasi only city to show rise in FM Phase III auction, cumulative price up marginally
NEW DELHI: The bidding for FM Phase III appears to have slowed down yet again with the cumulative winning price at the end of the 112th round on the 28th day rising marginally to Rs 1156.2 crore in the e-auction for the first batch.
The focus remains on smaller cities as Ahmednagar, Bareilly and Hissar are marching forward.
Varanasi continued to march higher to Rs 17.49 crore, but Jodhpur at Rs 11.44 crore and Kohlapur with Rs 9.44 crore were stable. Others in the aisles to enter the Rs 10 crore club appear to be Kanpur, Rajkot, Amritsar, Madurai, and Aurangabad, which have all got above Rs 6 crore each.
The number of channels – 96 channels in 56 cities – remained the same but the total bids surpassed the cumulative reserve price by Rs 696.7 crore or 151.6 per cent against the aggregate reserve price of about Rs 459.5 crore.
The cumulative provisional winning price has thus risen over the total reserve price of the first batch of 135 FM channels in 69 existing cities – Rs 550.18 crore – by Rs 606 crore or 110.1 per cent.
As was reported earlier by Indiantelevison.com, 13 cities namely Asansol, Gulbarga, Mangalore, Mysore, Puducherry, Rajahmundry, Siliguri, Tiruchy, Tirunveli, Tirupati, Tuticorin, Vijaywada and Warangal continue to elude bidders.
The demand in most cities fell by up to three per cent and by four per cent below the excess demand at the price in the 112th round in Hyderabad.
The Percentage Price Increment applicable for the Next Clock Round rose to one each in Ahmednagar, Bareilly, Hissar, and Varanasi. There was no change in the other cities.
The winning price has risen by more than 100 per cent above their respective reserve prices in Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Aurangabad, Bengaluru, Bhubaneshwar, Chennai, Delhi, Guwahati, Jaipur, Jodhpur, Kolhapur, Mumbai, Nasik, Patna, Pune, Rourkela and Varanasi, all of which got provisional winning bidders at prices more than double the respective reserve prices.
The provisional winning price in the top three cities reflected no change: Delhi – Rs 169.16 crore (for just one channel); Mumbai – Rs 122.81 crore (for two channels); and Bengaluru – Rs 109.25 crore. In addition, Chennai at Rs 53.38 crore, Ahmedabad at Rs 42.68 crore, Pune at Rs 42.03 crore, Jaipur at Rs 28.34 crore, Chandigarh at Rs 19.04 crore, Hyderabad at Rs 18 crore, Patna at Rs 17.89 crore, Cochin at Rs 15.04 crore, Nasik at Rs 14.66 crore and Lucknow at Rs 14 crore have remained static for some days now.
When queried as to why cities where the price has been static for many days are not being frozen, a senior I&B Ministry official said that the process was mechanical without human interference and therefore the computer would decide when it is time to stop. In any case, he added that someone could always come up with a higher bid even later.
I&B Ministry
AIDCF moves TDSAT over Waves plan to stream linear TV channels
Industry body flags regulatory gap as OTT push sparks broadcast turf war
NEW DELHI: The battle between traditional television distributors and digital platforms has found its way to the courts, with the All India Digital Cable Federation (AIDCF) moving the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) against Prasar Bharati’s latest OTT play.
At the heart of the dispute is Waves, Prasar Bharati’s OTT platform, which has invited applications to onboard linear satellite TV channels. Aidcf, which represents multi-system operators (msos), argues that this move sidesteps existing broadcasting rules and risks tilting the playing field in favour of digital platforms.
The federation’s petition hinges on a key provision in the Uplinking and Downlinking Guidelines, 2022. Clause 11(3)(f) allows broadcasters to downlink channels only if they provide signal decoders to recognised distribution platforms such as MSOS, DTH operators, hits operators and iptv platforms. OTT platforms, aidcf points out, do not feature on that list.
In simple terms, AIDCF’s argument is this: if OTT platforms are not officially recognised distributors, they should not be receiving broadcast signals in the first place. By inviting channels onto Waves, the federation claims, Prasar Bharati is opening a backdoor that lets broadcasters bypass long-standing rules.
The concern goes beyond legal interpretation. Aidcf says OTT platforms currently operate without a clear regulatory framework, allowing them to expand into traditional broadcasting territory without the compliance burden that cable and satellite operators must carry. That, it argues, creates an uneven contest.
There is also a warning for broadcasters. If they provide signal decoders to an OTT platform like Waves, they could risk breaching the very conditions under which their downlinking permissions were granted.
For its part, Prasar Bharati’s Waves initiative is positioned as a step towards wider access and digital reach, bringing linear television into the streaming era. But critics say the move blurs the line between regulated broadcasting and largely unregulated streaming.
The matter is expected to come up before tdsat next week. The outcome could do more than settle a single dispute. It may help define how India regulates the fast-merging worlds of television and OTT, where the lines are getting fuzzier by the day and the stakes, sharper than ever.
