Hike in FDI in FM Radio Ruled Out
Any rumors of a raise in FDI percentages in FM radio were put to rest by the Information and Broadcasting Minister, Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi on Wednesday.
Broadcast of news and current affairs programmes would continue
to be restricted to the FM channels of All India Radio, confirmed
the minister.
As per FEMA regulations, foreign direct investment and investment
by foreign institutional investors in private FM channels is
limited to 20%.
The Government will soon auction 90 more FM stations
in Class ‘C’ and ‘D’ cities for which bids were not received in the last phase. These would add to the 57 private FM channels which are already on air.
The auction is likely to be held only after review of the 250
radio stations which will be on air by the end of 2007.
The government has received 35 applications for operating community
radio stations over and above the 60 letters of intent that have
already been issued.
The community radio service would soon be
launched with educational institutions and non profit and voluntary
organisations.
The Government is being urged to welcome more entrepreneurs
to FM broadcasting and speed up allocation of remaining channels
to encourage the entry of private broadcasters.
As per the report prepared by a Standing Committee in Parliament,
266 FM channels have been granted permission. Of these, 58 went
on air last year.
The bids for 97 were kept in abeyance, as the
offers were too low.
The collections amounted to Rs.11.45 billion in Phase II as a
one-time entry fee. Annual fee of Rs 277.9 million has been realized
by February 21 this year.
An expense of Rs. 10 million has been
set aside for 5 new towers.
The FM network of All India Radio has been performing below par,
utilizing only Rs. 221.2 million of the Rs. 1.55 billion allocated
for the periods 2002-03 and 2005-06. AIR’s FM services have been allocated a total of Rs. 3.28 billion for expansion.
Photo: Bank of New Orleans Building 100 by Rick Fifield, licensed under Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
