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July 5, 2001
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Money > Business Headlines > Report July 5, 2001 |
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Only 3 bidders for DD Metro's prime time slotsBS ICE Bureau The big names kept away again, but this time Doordarshan has at least received three bids for prime time slots on DD Metro, which went abegging last time. Prasar Bharati had then announced re-bidding and removed the reserved floor prices for the time slots. After the pre-qualification bids were opened on Wednesday at Mandi House, the headquarters of DD, it became apparent that those in the fray included Sri Adhikari Brothers, Rajya Sabha member Pritish Nandy-promoted Pritish Nandy Communications and a little known company, Prachar Communication. While Prachar has bid for slots between 7 and 10 pm, PNC has pitched for 8-9 pm and SAB for 8-10 pm. The bids will be opened on Thursday, but it is highly unlikely that these will outstrip Rs 1.21 billion, the amount which Kerry Packer's Nine Broadcasting paid last year for the 7 and 10 pm slots on DD Metro for a one-year contract which comes to an end later this year. This year, the contract will be signed for a period of three years. "After the removal of floor prices, we had expected many more parties will bid this time," a DD official told Business Standard looking disappointed that the likes of Star, Sony and Zee had a thumbs down signal to the marketing of DD Metro slots despite making noises to the contrary earlier. However, controversy seems to be building around PNC's bid. According to DD sources, PNC has some outstanding against it - grounds good enough for the mandarins of Mandi House to raise questions on the validity of PNC's bid. Talking to Business Standard over phone from London, Nandy was categorical that there was no outstanding against PNC. "What probably they (DD officials) are talking about is some disputed dues," he said. Without disclosing the actual bid amount, Nandy said, " PNC's is a tiny bid." Last month, Prasar Bharati decided to go in for rebidding of prime time slots on DD Metro without having any reserved floor price. The floor price for 7-11 pm slot totalled Rs 1.15 billion. Prasar Bharati board is yet to take an independent view on the lone bid of Rs 5 million received during the first round from Moving Pictures for the 11 pm-12.30 am slot. Terms and conditions for bids state there shall be a 10 per cent annual increase in the bid amount quoted. Dividing the time band into one-hour slots, it had laid the floor price of Rs 225 million, Rs 325 million, Rs 425 million and Rs 175 million for the four hourly slots between 7 pm and 11pm. One of the concerns of the big media companies was that original programming had to be supplied to DD, coupled with other stringent programming restrictions. Powered by YOU MAY ALSO WANT TO READ:
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