[cr-india]Centre sets up committee on FM radio..

[Frederick Noronha (FN)]

________________________________________________________________________

Message: 1
   Date: Wed, 30 Jul 2003 01:06:53 +0530
   From: "Alokesh Gupta" <alokeshgupta at hotmail.com>
Subject: Centre sets up committee on FM radio

Centre sets up committee on FM radio
--------------------------------------
TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ FRIDAY, JULY 25, 2003 05:14:29 AM ] 
NEW DELHI: The government on Thursday announced a 10-member committee headed by Ficci secretary general Amit Mitra to come up with recommendations on FM radio along with legal implications of changes in the present regime. The committee will address a slew of issues including an alternate licence fee structure, inclusion of news, foreign equity participation, permitting non-commercial radio stations with focus on Indian culture and heritage and legal implications of modifying existing regime for Phase I licensees and submit its report by September 30, ’03.

CII’s Dilip Chennoy, Nasscom’s Kiran Karnik, radio man Ameen Sayani and Shardul Shroff of legal firm, Amarchand Mangal Das, are part of the committee. Other members are WPC wireless advisor PK Garg, AIR engineer-in-chief KM Paul, Becil CMD KRP Verma, AIR DDG (programming) Noreen Naqvi, and I&B director Mahua Pal.

The committee will determine a transparent and effective bidding or auction process to be adopted for allotment of frequencies in Phase II of FM radio broadcasting. It will also assess a viable licence fee structure for various cities — whether it should be a one-time entry fee, a fixed licence fee or revenue sharing — based on clearly defined parameters.

While keeping in mind foreign equity participation in other sectors, the committee will be required to suggest the extent of foreign equity participation in private FM radio to make them economically more viable or sustainable.

It will also study the desirability and legal implications of making modifications in the licensing regime under Phase-I. It will also see whether a different licensing regime should be proposed for Phase-II. Improvement of content and possibility of allowing news will also be looked into by the committee.

The committee will go into whether commercial broadcasters should be allowed to operate non-commercial, non-advertisement driven channels and the terms and conditions under which they can do so. It will suggest the kind of content such channels should have, their programming code and what can be done to guard against violations.

It will also assess whether co-location of transmission towers is necessary and if not, come up with alternatives for metros, where co-located set-ups involving huge investments have been operationalised. 

The committee has also been asked to determine legal implications of changes proposed as well as to formulate draft bidding documents and contract/licence agreements,said an official release. 
 
(Times Of India - 25 July 2003)

Regds,
Alokesh Gupta
New Delhi, India.




________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________



Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/