NEW DELHI: The Government has decided to commence e-auctions for Phase III of FM radio from December this year.

The auctions will be over a period of three years to increase the number of private FM radio channels from the present 245 to around 839, covering another 227 cities having population of over 0.1 million.

Meanwhile, a total of 25 FM radio broadcasting companies have applied for migrating from FM Radio Phase II to FM Radio Phase III. The Government has extended the last date for grant of signing of Migration Grant of Permission Agreement (GOPA) to 30 June.

Information and Broadcasting Ministry sources told Indiantelevision.com that these 25 include Reliance Broadcast Network, Asianet Radio, BAG Infotainment, HT Media, Malayala Manorama, Music Broadcast, Radio Mid-Day West (India) Ltd, Mathrubhumi, Sun TV Network and Udaya FM, Clear Media (India), Entertainment Network India Ltd (ENIL), Gwalior Farms Pvt Ltd, India Radio Ventures, Kal Radio, Malar Publications, Muthoot Broadcasting, PCM Cement Concrete, Purvy Broadcasts, Digital Radio Broadcasting, Raneka Fincom, South Asia FM, DB Corp, Syntech Informatics, and Puran Multimedia.

Even as the Government has said that private FM radio channels will be permitted to carry news bulletins of All India Radio in unaltered form, it has been clarified that broadcast relating to subjects like sporting events, traffic and weather will be treated as non-news and will, therefore, be permissible.

Other subjects coming under non-news and current affairs are coverage of cultural events, festivals, coverage of topics pertaining to examinations, results, admissions, career counseling, availability of employment opportunities, and public announcements pertaining to civic amenities like electricity, water supply, natural calamities, health alerts etc. as provided by the local administration.

Meanwhile, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology has welcomed the decision to go to Phase III and to increase the FDI from 20 to 26 per cent and the decision to allow private operators to own more than one channel but not more than 40 per cent of the total channels in a city subject to a minimum of three different operators in the city.

The Committee was happy that permission for FM Channels is going to be awarded through ascending e-Auction as followed by Department of Telecommunications for the auction of 3G and BWA Spectrum, mutates-mutandis as recommended by Group of Ministers (GoM) as licensing Methodology for FM Phase III.

The Committee observed that the Ministry has constituted two Committees - Inter ministerial Committee, and Application Review Committee - to guide and supervise the process of e-Auction.

The Committee said this was ?certainly a step forward in the direction of fast expansion of FM Radio Services in the country as it will give further boost to the FM Services movement?. The Committee wanted the two Committees to meet on regular basis.

MUMBAI: Fever FM, the radio arm of HT Media, has seen its operating profit shrink to a mere Rs 0.1 million for the quarter ended 31 December.

The private FM company had posted an Ebitda profit of Rs 39 million in the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal. In the trailing quarter, however, it had reported an operating loss of Rs 45.4 million.

Fever FM?s revenue saw a marginal decline to Rs 174 million, from Rs 180 million in the year-ago period.

HT Media has employed a capital of Rs 814.1 million in its radio business, according to data provided till 31 December 2011. Fever FM operates FM stations in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Kolkata.

Meanwhile, HT Media, the publishers of Hindustan Times, has posted a net profit of Rs 482 million for the quarter under review, marginally higher over the year-ago period (Rs 478 million).

HT Media chairperson and editorial director Shobhana Bhartia said, "We are happy to report continued growth in a tough economic environment resulting in slowing advertising spend and a weakening rupee. We are confident that our strong and resilient business model, established brands and sustained cost optimisation will continue to create value and show good leverage as the macro economic environment improves."

Consolidated revenue went up 14 per cent to Rs 5.27 billion, from Rs 4.64 billion a year ago. The company said it has witnessed a 11 per cent increase in print advertising to Rs 4.07 billion (from Rs 3.69 billion in Q3 FY?11), while circulation revenue saw 7 per cent hike to Rs 503 million (from Rs 471 million).

Total expenditure jumped 20 per cent to Rs 4.41 billion, from Rs 3.75 billion a year-ago. The company said it suffered a 13 per cent increase in consumption of raw material, 23 per cent increase in employee cost and 25 per cent rise in other expenditure.

Consolidated Ebitda stood at Rs 945 million, compared to Rs 947 million.
 

MUMBAI: Fever FM, the radio arm of HT Media, has swung into operating loss. For the quarter ended September, it has reported an operating loss of Rs 45.4 million compared to an Ebitda profit of Rs 2.8 million a year ago.

Revenue, however, rose 12 per cent to Rs 157 million during the fiscal second-quarter, as against Rs 141 million in the earlier year.

HT Media has employed a capital of Rs 832.7 million in its radio business, according to data provided till 30 September 2011. Fever FM operates FM stations in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Kolkata. 

Meanwhile, HT Media, the publishers of Hindustan Times, has posted a net profit of Rs 468.9 million for the quarter under review, a 12.99 per cent increase over the year-ago period (Rs 388 million).

HT Media chairperson and editorial director Shobhana Bhartia said, "Higher advertising revenue on the back of expanding readership base has enabled us to post a healthy operational and financial performance despite a challenging macro environment. We are particularly pleased with the robust performance of our Hindi business in the quarter while the other print businesses continue to do well. The slowdown in the economy and adverse currency exchange rates are resulting in some headwinds. We will look to counter these challenges by leveraging our strong brand position to grow further while continuing our optimise costs."

Consolidated revenue went up 11 per cent to Rs 4.93 billion, from Rs 4.45 billion a year ago. The company said that it has witnessed a 13 per cent increase in print advertising to Rs 3.70 billion (from Rs 3.29 billion in Q2 FY?11), while circulation revenue saw 21 per cent hike to Rs 507 million (from Rs 418 million).

Total expenditure also rose to Rs 4.45 billion, as against Rs 3.88 billion in the prior year period. The company said that it was mainly because of a 13 per cent increase in consumption of raw material and 32 per cent increase in other expenditure.

Consolidated Ebitda stood at Rs 917 million, up 8 per cent from 852 million.

On a standalone basis, HT Media?s net profit came down to Rs 356.3 million, from Rs 452.5 million even as its revenues grew from Rs 2.98 billion to Rs 3.14 billion.

MUMBAI: HT Media?s radio division Fever FM business head and CFO S Keerthivasan has quit.

Keerthivasan, who has been a key part of the leadership team at HT Media, had joined in 2004 as the head of business excellence and later took over the responsibility of leading its new venture into the FM radio space - Fever FM.

He will be replaced by Harshad Jain who will join the company soon, HT Media said in a statement.
 
Jain comes with 20 years of experience and was with Airtel Digital TV as senior vice president and head - Sales and Marketing. Prior to that, he was with World Space India as chief marketing officer.

Jain has also worked with PespsiCo, performing various regional and corporate roles in marketing, sales and business.

?Harshad is a highly passionate and motivated team player. We are sure he will be an excellent addition to HT Media leadership and we look forward to welcoming him into the fold,? HT Media said in a statement.

Meanwhile, the official communiqu? said that Keerthivasan is currently pursuing higher professional education from Kelloggs Business School and he has shown keenness that upon completion of his studies he would like to move to the next phase of his career - exploring new challenges and options outside of HT Media.

?While he will certainly be missed, we?re sure he will be very successful and be a great value to any team he joins. We wish him the best of luck in all of his future endeavours,? the company said.