Red FM welcomes High Court's decision on auction

Welcoming Delhi High Court's decision to allow Digital Radio Broadcasting Ltd, which runs Red FM, to participate in the e-auction scheduled to begin tomorrow, Red FM said it will participate in the auction for more frequencies as per its plans.

"We feel that the Hon'ble court has accepted our submission that we have no connection with the reasons for denial of security clearance and rejection of our application ... We will continue with auction as per our plans of bidding for more frequencies," Red FM COO Nisha Narayan said in a statement.

Auction of first batch of private FM radio phase III channels is starting from July 27. Narayan said: "In phase three also we have plans of going ahead with the philosophy of nurturing not only commercially viable bigger metro cities but also reaching out to the last corner of the country. At the end of phase 2 we had highest number of stations in North East and tier 3 & 4 cities as a network." Narayan said that Red FM's inclusion in the auction process would mean a healthy competition and will benefit of entire FM radio industry and media and entertainment industry.

The Delhi High Court today quashed the government's July 15 decision denying security clearance to the radio channel as well as rejecting its application for permission to take part in stage three of FM auctions. Digital Radio Broadcasting Ltd, which runs Red FM in Delhi and Mumbai, had not been permitted by the government to take part in the auction on the ground that it had been denied security clearance due to its association Sun TV. The government had denied security clearance to Digital Radio.

The radio channels had argued in court that former Telecom Minister Dayanidhi Maran was in no way connected with Digital Radio, while his brother Kalanithi only has an indirect shareholding of 21.6 per cent in the company.