The Hindu Business Line : Government plans third phase of FM privatisation

Mr S.K. Arora, Secretary, Information and Broadcasting Ministry, said, "We are looking at coming out with a third phase of bidding for private FM radio, which may see frequencies being sold in about 60-70 B, C and D cities, apart from some in A cities." During the second phase, the Government sold around 280 radio stations in about 90 cities generating revenues of about Rs 1,100 crore.

The official also said that the Government is erecting new towers and also enhancing capacity on existing ones to provide co-location facilities for private players on Prasar Bharati's infrastructure. As per the norms, the Government had approved the co-location of Common Transmission Infrastructure, consisting of antenna, cable, combiners, buildings, power supply, water supply etc.

The Government has finalised a draft Broadcast Regulation Bill and will initiate the consultation process soon, said Mr Arora at the Commonwealth Broadcasting Association conference. Asked whether the Bill could be tabled in the Budget session of the Parliament, he said the Government was making efforts to finalise it as early as possible.

The proposed legislation would try to regulate content, define existing uplinking and downlinking guidelines and licensing procedures. "We propose to take the liberal perspective even further by introducing legislation which would facilitate self-regulation," the official added. The Government is also considering to introduce "public service broadcasting obligation" which would be applicable to private broadcasters.

"Of late, the private broadcasters have also started doing public service broadcasting and the Government is considering whether the roles of public broadcaster Prasar Bharati and the private players can be converged in due course," he added.

Content sharing: Prasar Bharati has written to private sports broadcasters for sharing of content. "As the new tender (floated by the Board of Cricket Control in India) allots both satellite and terrestrial rights to one single entity, we have written letters to private broadcasters ESPN-Star Sports, Ten Sports, Zee and Sony seeking agreement for content sharing," Mr K.S. Sarma, CEO, Prasar Bharati, said.

The national broadcaster has offered to share the revenue in a 25:75 ratio with the rights holder.