Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India has issued the Notice Inviting Applications (NIA) for e-auction of 135 channels of Private FM Radio in 69 existing cities of Phase II in the first batch of FM Phase III on 2 nd March, 2015.
The first batch auction will pave the way for FM Phase III regime, which will bestow many new facilities on the operators under the regime.
In Phase III, the license will be for 15 years as against 10 years in Phase II. Total FDI/ FII allowed
in new regime is 26 per cent as compared to 20 per cent in Phase II. An operator in Phase III may own upto 40 pee cent of channels in the same city subject to three different operators in the city, whereas earlier policy provided for only one channel per city per operator. New regime also gives
an operator networking facility in its own network within the country. Unlike Phase II, Phase III regime permits the operators to carry the news bulletins of All India Radio in unaltered form on mutually agreed terms and conditions with Prasar Bharati.
FM phase III policy also provides support to the FM radio broadcasting services in cities of North Eastern part of India as in the cities of Jammu & Kashmir and Island territories, with provision of annual fee of the channels in these areas at half the rates for first three years, besides Prasar Bharati Infrastructure at half the lease rentals.
Applications can be submitted latest by March 23, 2015.
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