NEW DELHI: The projected annual growth of the television and FM radio industries has gone up to 22 and 24 per cent respectively as a result of the liberal policy framework over the past few years which had increased competition and helped introduce new technologies and services.
Stating this, Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Anand Sharma said today that the number of private TV channels uplinking from India had increased to 376 from 131 at the end of 2004, including 200 news and current affairs channels.
Announcing that the number of private FM radio channels has jumped from a meagre 21 in 12 cities in 2004 to 245 in 87 cities, he said it was proposed to provide licences to 790 new FM channels in 210 additional locations in the Phase III of FM expansion.
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The attempt is to further liberalize the terms and conditions of permission to provide more freedom to the industry and to ensure expansion of these services and better off take in the North East, J&K and island territories by providing special incentives, the Minister added in his opening remarks to the Consultative Committee of the Members of Parliament attached to his Ministry.
The minister said the latest digital TV technology of Headend-in-the-sky (HITS) will be finalized shortly. HITS with its wider operational coverage area through satellite would help spread digital distribution of signals throughout the country at one go with lower investments by cable operators, compared to the present cable networks. It will enable the rural as well as urban viewers to have a digital TV viewing experience of better quality at reasonable cost.
While the members appreciated the technological advancements, they also voiced their concerns about the mindless acts of violence, the gory details of incidents being beamed by private TV channels purely for competitive TRP ratings. The members emphasized that regional language channels should be given priority in the local bouquet offered by the cable and DTH operators. The members also underlined the need of a consumer grievance redressal system relating to both programming content as well as hardware.
In the context of the coverage of the recent Mumbai terrorists attack, the proposal for setting up of a Standing Media Consultative Committee in the Ministry of I & B also came up for discussion which will keep the dialogue between Government and the media open in a positive way.
Apart from MPs who are members of the Committee, the meeting was attended by senior officials of the Ministry and Prasar Bharati.
