15% Cap Is An Issue, Feel Private FM Broadcasters

Broadcasters of private FM channels have raised concerns about the restrictions imposed by the Ministry of Information and Broadcast on multiple permissions in a city.

The information memorandum issued by the ministry says that no entity will be allowed to have more than 15% of all channels allotted in the country. This however, excludes the channels located in Jammu & Kashmir, North-eastern States and island territories. The private broadcasters want the cap to be extended to overall auctions and not just for the partial Phase III auctions.

Ms Nisha Narayanan, COO, RED FM opined the following views about the pre-bid conference.

“15 percent cap is a major issue we have raised with the ministry of information and broadcasting which will affect all big players and RED FM specifically. Ideally we would have liked to reach out to more cities but it now restricts us to be present in few cities only. As a natural corollary, the likelihood gets skewed towards metros and mini metros and the C and D categories will be left out. The other option is to surrender some existing stations and bid for more cities which again does not help the growth of radio. We would also like the existing frequencies to be there in the new cities since we have all built a brand around it. Moreover they are widely recognized in the listeners mind over the last 10 years. Networking, brand and marketing campaigns, content syndication etc becomes a lot easier with single frequency network.” [sic]

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