NEW DELHI: The Group of Ministers is expected to meet shortly to take a decision on phase III of FM Broadcasting and raising of foreign direct investment in FM radio, even as Minister for Information & Broadcasting, Ambika Soni, admitted that the government was not opposed to increasing the FDI from the present 20 per cent
She was speaking to mediapersons soon after receiving the report of the Committee on TRPs headed by FICCI Secretary General Amit Mitra.
She said the GoM had not been able to meet as Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee had not been in the city, but would do so shortly.
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India, which has about 248 FM channels spread across 86 cities, is planning to sell 806 more FM licenses in the Phase III expansion
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India in January proposed to raise the limit of foreign direct investment in FM radio to 49 per cent.
TRAI had in fact recommended a revision of FDI in all sectors of the media. It recommended that the foreign investment limit for news and current affairs television channels in the Uplinking guidelines may be increased from 26 to 49 per cent, and that of FM radio should be revised to 49%
In a consultation paper on the subject of foreign direct investment in the broadcasting sector, TRAI has also called for a hike in the limits of foreign investment for cable networks from 49% to 74% and said that the total foreign investment including FDI for DTH should be 74% as in case of HITS and teleports
The Authority has reiterated its earlier recommendations that the total foreign investment including FDI for HITS should be 74% as in case of telecom sector in view of convergence of technologies Similarly, the total foreign investment including FDI for Teleport should be 74% as in case of HITS
The Authority also reiterated its earlier recommendations that the composite foreign investment limit including FDI should be 74% for mobile television service
The Authority recommended that status quo may be maintained in the foreign investment limits in the Downlinking guidelines. Similarly, the status quo in regard to foreign investment limits for a non-news & current affairs TV channel in the Uplinking guidelines should continue
The consultation paper on foreign investment in the broadcasting sector was issued following a letter from the Information and Broadcasting Ministry on 30 September 2009 that TRAI should re-examine its recommendations of 26 April 2008 where the methodology of calculation of indirect foreign equity was based on the proportionate method in broadcasting sector. This had been placed on the TRAI website on 19 October 2009 to elicit preliminary views of stakeholders on the subject.
