NEW DELHI: The much awaited Phase III auction of FM radio will start in October Information & Broadcasting (I & B) minister Manish Tewari has said.
Announcing the development at the inaugural address of the ‘Big Picture Summit on Media and Entertainment organized’ by CII (Confederation of Indian Industries) in the capital Friday 13 September, Tewari said that Phase III in FM Radio will get underway next month with the e-auctions, adding radio had seen a major resurgence thanks to mobile telephony.
E-auctions will increase the number of private FM radio channels from the present 245 to around 839 covering another 227 cities having population of over 100,000. Under the current Phase-II 245 FM channels are operational covering 86 cities, each with a population of over 300,000 or more.
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Calling for a persuasive relationship between the government and media Tewari said the Government wanted the relationship with the media to be one of persuasion rather than regulation but (the) media should introspect about the reasonable restrictions laid down in the Constitution to the freedom of speech.
He noted that despite the general slowdown the world over and in India, the M& E sector in the country was expected to grow at a pace of 18.4 per cent CAGR to Rs 2,245 billion by 2017 from Rs 965 billion in 2012.
He further added that the government will cooperate to ensure that the M & E (Media & Entertainment) sector is able to ‘unlock the potential of millions.’
He noted that the print and television sector comprised 48 per cent of this growth with the Internet expected to take over by 2017. He said the real success story was the print media since its growth continued at a rate of ten per cent per year when it was falling all over the world.
Former I & B secretary Uday Kumar Varma had said in June that the e-auction for the third phase of FM Radio is expected to take off ‘as soon as possible’ with all administrative and other hurdles cleared.
