A special incentive for North East Region, Jammu & Kashmir and Island territories have been granted for expansion of FM radio broadcasting services through private agencies (Phase-III)’. This was approved on Thursday by the Union Cabinet, upon the proposal of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. In a PIB communiqué, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting said Private FM Radio broadcasters in North East (NE) Region and Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) and Island territories will be required to pay half the rate of annual license fee for an initial period of three years from the date from which the annual license fee becomes payable and the permission period of fifteen (15) years begins. The revised fee structure has also been made applicable for a period of three years, from the date of issuance of guidelines, to the existing operators in these States to enable them to effectively compete with the new operators. Apart from fee relaxation, proposal has been made for availing Prasar Bharati infrastructure at half the lease rentals for similar category cities in such areas. The limit on the ownership of Channels, at the national level, allocated to an entity has been retained at 15%. However channels allotted in Jammu & Kashmir, North Eastern States and island territories will be allowed over and above the 15% national limit to incentivise the bidding for channels in such areas; The provisions of the Policy will also be available to FM Phase-II operators. The incentives provided in the Policy with regard to J&K, north eastern States and Island territories will make the operations viable in these areas and are expected to result in better offtake of channels. The steps taken in the new policy will bring down operational costs and improve viability in general. To improve the viability further as against a maximum of 4 channels in D category cities permitted in FM Phase-II, FM Phase-Ill proposes only 3 FM channels in D category cities so that there are lesser operators to share the advertisement pie. The reduction in the lock in period of shareholding of promoters/majority shareholders from the present 5 years to 3 years will give them greater freedom to change the Share Holding Pattern. Content diversification because of news content provided by All India Radio, because of categories being specifically permitted and because of multiple ownership of channels in a city except in D category cities will allow operators to distinguish themselves from others to be able to cater to niche audiences. This will also increase the overall listenership base and the listening time. E-auction for the channels will be conducted in batches and number of batches will be decided by the Ministry of I&B, depending upon the response from the bidders after auction of first batch. The ministry of I&B will appoint an independent expert agency, though a transparent selection process, following established procedure, to conduct e-auction. The ministry will separately issue a detailed Information Memorandum, in due course, enabling the prospective bidders to participate, and also indicating the cities, reserve prices city-wise, number of channels to be taken up in each batch and other procedures for e-auction. A Notice Inviting Applications (NIA) for participation in the Auction(s) will also be issued in due course of time.
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