Cabinet okays e-auction of FM Radio Phase III

The Cabinet on Wednesday gave its approval for the e-auction of the third batch of the private FM Radio Phase-III, which will complete the coverage of private FM radio broadcasting across all States and six Union Territories.

According to an official statement, the Cabinet approved conducting of auction of 683 radio frequencies in 236 cities in subsequent batches, which will help expand the presence of FM radio in more cities.

These auctions are expected to generate a revenue of ₹1,100 crore for the government.

“With the roll out of the third batch of auctions, a large number of cities across the country that have no private FM radio channels will be benefited, which include several cities in border areas of Jammu and Kashmir and North-East States, where the population is less than one lakh,” an official statement said.

The first and second batch auctions of Private FM Radio stations under Phase III of the FM policy, guidelines were conducted in 2015 and 2016 respectively.

While 97 channels in 56 cities were sold in Batch-1, 66 channels in 48 cities were sold in Batch-II.

‘All States covered’

“With the complete roll-out of FM Phase-III auction, all the 29 states and 6 of the 7 UT, will be covered by private FM radio broadcasting.

“This is also likely to generate direct and indirect employment to more than 10, 000 persons on a pan India basis,” the statement added.

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