MUMBAI: As the government and broadcasters lobby for issues around the upcoming FM phase III auctions, the Information and Broadcasting (I&B) ministry has extended the last date of signing the Grant of Permission Agreement (GOPA) to 30 June 2013.
According to a notification by the ministry to the FM radio phase II operators, the operators who are desirous of migration to Phase-III regime, can now execute the GOPA by 30 June 2013. The last date for the signing the GOPA earlier was 31 December 2012.
Speaking with Radioandmusic.com on the extension, Red FM senior VP projects and programming Nisha Narayanan said, “The decision has come like a double-edged sword to us. As a broadcaster we wanted the FM phase III auctions to come in earlier but instead they have been pushed back to June.
We now hope that there won’t be any further delay after June. Also secondly, we hope that once the GOPA has been signed, we get more clarity on issues like migration fee, licensing and the term period as thus we can plan our future investments in the space.”
Putting forth his view, Radio One Ltd MD Vineet Singh Hukmani said, “Looks like radio has moved down in priority for the MIB minister and the exchequer will pay the price for auction revenues not coming in this fiscal, which is not good for anyone. From an operational perspective delays in 26 per cent FDI, networking, news which all players are waiting for will now be delayed. TRAI recommendations have confused and slowed down the ministry making them cautious after the 2G spectrum response which also does not make good politics.”