The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has issued its new policy guidelines for FM radio Phase III auctioning to increase overall FM coverage in India. The new phase will enable a total of 839 new FM stations in total India broadcast. While this will open doors to a lot more companies willing to foray into this broadcast stream, what needs to be seen this time around is whether or not the auction can be conducted in a fashion where there is little or no room for errors.
The first round of e-auctioning for the third phase of FM radio expansion (FM-III) is expected to see stiff competition between radio firms as it will cover those towns which are already exposed to private FM radio services and in a change from the past the FM-III policy allows operators to own more than one station in a town. The new policy changes have opened the field for new and old players alike however it will be a big challenge for the new entrants to compete with established players ready with their plans to penetrate in the new markets”
-Sanjay Salil, Managing Director, MediaGuru Consultants Pvt Ltd.
According to new policy guidelines all cities with a population of one lakh plus have been awarded FM station bandwidth, leading to over 800 new stations to be launched in the Phase III. The Reserve Price for new channels in existing FM Phase-II cities shall be the highest bid price received for that city in Phase-II. In cities which are being taken up afresh, the reserve price shall be the Highest Bid price received during FM Phase-II for that category of cities in that region.
