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.

Copyright © 2006- 2015 NRIRealtyNews.com

• Disclaimer
• Contact Us