Reblog: Music Broadcast (Radio City) IPO review
Issue Summary
Music Broadcast Ltd (MBL) is operating radio stations under the branch “Radio City” and has grown its presence from 4 cities in 2001 to 37 cities as on 15th February 2017. These radio stations include the eight “Radio Mantra Stations” transferred from SPML pursuant to the Scheme of Arrangement and nine out of eleven New Radio City Stations. The company expects the remaining two New Radio City Stations to be operationalised by March/ April 2017. MBL is present in 12 out of the top 15 cities in India by population having a reach to over 49.60 million listeners in 23 cities. All its Phase II Radio City Stations which were under Phase II Policy have been migrated to the Phase III Policy. These include Radio City stations which are present at Bengaluru, Lucknow, Mumbai, New Delhi, Chennai, Pune, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Surat, Nagpur, Jaipur, Vadodara, Coimbatore, Vizag, Ahmednagar, Sholapur, Sangli, Nanded, Jalgaon and Akola and the Radio Mantra Stations which have been transferred to it pursuant to the Scheme of Arrangement which are located at Agra, Bareilly, Gorakhpur, Varanasi, Jalandhar, Ranchi, Hissar, and Karnal. Under the Phase III Policy, new cities were opened up for auction, pursuant to which MBL acquired 11 additional radio stations i.e. the New Radio City Stations. The New Radio City Stations which have been operationalised are located at Kanpur, Ajmer, Kota, Udaipur, Patiala, Jamshedpur, Nasik, Kolhapur and Madurai. The remaining two New Radio City Stations namely Bikaner and Patna are expected to be operationalised by March/ April 2017. Under the Phase III Policy the license period for radio stations has been increased to 15 years and radio stations are now permitted to carry news bulletins of AIR and also network their radio stations in all cities.