MUMBAI: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has recommended an increase in foreign investment ceiling in radio from the current 20 per cent to 26 per cent.
The current proposal differs from the one in 2008 where Trai had proposed to raise the FDI cap in FM radio and uplinking of channels to 49 per cent. On Wednesday, Trai said that foreign participation should be restricted to 26 per cent.
As the information and broadcasting ministry had not acted on the earlier propositions of Trai, at present the foreign participation cap in FM radio is at 20 per cent. The regulator maintained that limiting the FDI for FM radio to 26 per cent will bring it at par with the present cap for the print media and news channels.
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Trai mentioned on its official website, “FM radio services is more localised in nature, both in terms of content and reach. Also, the investment required to create the infrastructure and the content is much less when compared to television sector.”
It further added, FM Radio and news and current affairs channels are of similar nature from the sensitivity point of view and so there is no justification to have different foreign investment limits for these services. Equal limits will bring the sectoral FDI cap in news and current affairs channels and FM Radio in line with the FDI cap allowed for the print media.”
