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This is probably the smallest of the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Enterprises projects - but will end up making more news impact than the stock price of, say, Reliance Energy, going up by 10 percent in one day.
That's because it's his foray into media - and the media loves the media. We bother more about Tarun Katial being picked up by ADAE than about the ARPU at Reliance Infocomm falling by Rs. 100 per subscriber. And we are stunned when Adlabs, now an ADAE venture, has been so successful in its bidding for licenses for FM stations across the country that it is now in the unenviable position where it has to surrender a few cities to bring down its presence to lower than the 15% ceiling that the radio policy has set.
Before we get into ADAE and their competitors, let us congratulate the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting for completing Phase II of the FM policy in India with none of the controversy and court battles that one associates with exercises such as this.
The exercise has seen the Government mopping up a total of Rs. 930 crore; surely a handy amount in the face of any number of populist measures. Very few of the frequencies have gone unbid for, and that in itself is a reason for the bureaucrats to pat themselves on the back.
The clear winners at the end of the exercise: Adlabs, with a total of 57 licenses; South Asia Radio, the Astro (Malaysia)-NDTVValue Labs promoted entity with 50 licenses; Entertainment Network India Limited, the owner of the Radio Mirchi brand - and the scion of the Times of India group with 32 licenses; Kal Radio, the Kalanidhi Maran promoted south dominant network with 17 licenses. Those are the monsters, but there are a number of biggies that will surely dominate in the cities where they are present: Radio Mid-Day, Radio Today, MBPL (Radio City) Pan India (Zee) Shri Puran, Synergy, BAG Infotainment with far smaller presence but more than adequate experience or spread to make a mark. The surprises and the dark horses will include the Rajiv Chandrasekhar promoted Indigo and the Hindustan Times promoted HT Radio, Malayala Manorama, Mathrubhumi, Rajasthan Patrika and Malar, all of whom surely have an understanding of the media and of technology.
We've questioned the wisdom of getting into this business in a previous issue of Impact, and that does not seem to have deterred the major players from aggressive bidding. Which brings us to our first observation: where are the new entrepreneurs in the FM race?
The bidding is clerly dominated by existing media houses -- both national and regional. The Times of India group now has a national presence in radio, and this will certainly bolster their newspaper and television ambitions. Players such as Hindustan Times, Malayala Manorama, Mathrubhumi and Rajasthan Patrika have decided to limit their radio plans to cities or areas of current print influence.