MUMBAI: The central government is planning to set up a facility to monitor the programme content that is broadcast on private FM radio stations during the 12th Five Year Plan.
Information and broadcasting (I&B) secretary Uday Kumar Varma stated the need to monitor radio content on private FM players as nearly 839 more such stations are likely to be launched in the next round of FM phase III expansion within the next couple of years.
Speaking at a function of the Electronic Media Monitoring Centre (EMMC) in New Delhi, Varma said, “The whole world of monitoring of radio content is still to be handled and addressed in a meaningful manner. We do have a mechanism but I think we need to keep that mechanism evolving. With 800 plus FM channels expected to come in next one to three years, there will be quite a handful that will need to be addressed.”
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Emphasizing on the importance of monitoring the content on an urgent basis, he also said the permission to private channels to broadcast news in the future demands the move. He added, “They will begin with AIR news but local news in any case, they may be allowed to generate and broadcast and that would have several manifestations which will need to be monitored.”
The EMMC is a department under the I&B ministry which monitors TV content round-the-clock and reports violations of rules also carrying out analysis. EMMC director Ranjana Dev Sarmah also told an agency that the content monitoring body was in talks to expand its operations to include radio content and increase the number of television channels.
Sarmah said, “During the 12th Five Year Plan period, we intend to set up the mechanism to monitor radio content as per the I&B ministry’s instructions. We also plan to increase the number of TV channels which are monitored from the current 300 to upto 1200 in the coming days.”
