[cr-india] FM-II Policy in Cabinet by Feb 20

[sajan venniyoor]

‘FM-II POLICY TO REACH CABINET BY FEBRUARY 20’  
Nivedita Mookerji, Financial Express, January 21, 2005

NEW DELHI, JAN 20:  The draft note on the second phase of FM radio privatisation would be forwarded to the Union Cabinet by February 20. Information and broadcasting minister S Jaipal Reddy is learnt to have given this assurance to media houses on Thursday. The I&B ministry is consulting other ministries, and even the Prime Minister, on the matter, sources pointed out. 

Private FM radio companies had sought a meeting with Mr Reddy to reiterate the financially unviable model of the sector, and to demand a fast rollout of policy for the second phase. 

Although the government is not keen on allowing news in private FM radio, top representatives from Living Media, Bennett Coleman, Mid-Day and Music Broadcast Private Ltd (MBPL) made a “categorical submission” on the issue. “If private TV has news, why can’t radio,” they stressed. The tsunami disaster was cited as a case in point, to show that there wasn’t enough radio to cover it. 

After the meeting on Thursday, managing director of Bennett Coleman’s Entertainment Network India Ltd (ENIL) A P Parigi told FE: “Today’s meeting seemed conclusive. The minister has given us a candid assurance.” He added that the government wants to resolve the outstanding issues of phase I players, too. 

“Mr Reddy was more than confident that the I&B ministry will move the proposal to the Cabinet by February 20,” according to Mr Parigi.Indicating that the policy was nearly ready, Mr Reddy is learnt to have said, “this could be treated as the last meeting with broadcasters on rollout of FM radio-II”. 

The meeting didn’t focus on specific issues such as foreign investment and the fee structure for phase II, a company official said. Transition from a licence fee structure to a revenue-sharing model was recommended by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) for the second phase, but the government was deliberating on a fixed fee model.

  
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/cr-india/attachments/20050126/686c8237/attachment-0002.htm