[cr-india] FM players in NE seek swift fee structure relaxation

[sajan venniyoor]

On Wed, Jun 3, 2009 at 11:16 PM, Vickram Crishna <v1clist at yahoo.co.uk>wrote:

> [Radio stations in the North East have to pay an annual fee of around Rs
> one million and have to bear an additional cost of Rs 3,00,000 annually
> towards tower maintenance.]
>
> Interesting. To whom is this fee paid? It must be a very massive tower to
> even cost that much, much less need that amount of maintenance annually.
>

It's paid to Prasar Bharati. Private FM stations have to use AIR and DD
towers (wherever available), otherwise BECIL is supposed to build Common
Transmission Infrastructure (CTI) The annual rental & maintenance fees on
these towers range from Rs.13.2 lakhs in metro cities to Rs.1.75 lakhs in
smaller towns.

As you can imagine, this is a major grouse with commercial FM operators. To
quote the business head of HT Radio, "Prasar Bharti should reduce
infrastructure rents. BECIL (Broadcast Engineering Consultants India Ltd),
which has been mandated to build common infrastructure by the government,
has done a shoddy job after collecting a good amount of money from all radio
stations."


> [This cost is multiplied according to the number of towers owned by the
> radio operators.]
>
Multiplied by the number of towers? Does this mean that private FM stations
> are allowed to operate multiple transmitters?
>

It's just one transmitter per radio channel, even in the North East. I think
the journo means number of radio channels owned by the operators, not the
number of towers.


> Logical though this is for anyone wanting to broadcast in hilly terrain, it
> hardly matches what we are given to understand are the t&c of radio station
> permissions.
>

As a matter of fact, I have read that the AIR plans to seed the North East
with over 100 low power transmitters (100 watt) in this Plan period, to
cover uncovered areas. I'm not sure this privilege will extend to private FM
operators, though, or to CR.

>
> If this was allowed to CR stations, we could bring our hardware setup costs
> down to near nil.
>

The government has a fetish for giant towers -- it's a phallic thing.


>
> ------------------------------
> *From:* Jaisakthivel <ardicdxclub at yahoo.co.in>
> *To:* dx india <dx_india at yahoogroups.com>
> *Sent:* Tuesday, 2 June, 2009 13:51:41
> *Subject:* [cr-india] FM players in NE seek swift fee structure relaxation
>
>
> FM radio operators in the north east are lobbying hard to get their voice
> heard - one of TRAI's recommendations last year on third phase of private FM
> radio broadcasting in 2008 was the relaxation of fee structure for
> North-East and Jammu and Kashmir.
>
> The players, particularly in the north east, are now hoping for approval of
> the proposal by new Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni.
>
> TRAI had recommended that the rate of annual fee be reduced to 50 per cent
> of what is being charged from all the existing permission holders in other
> areas, for private FM radio broadcasters in North east and Jammu and Kashmir
> region for an initial period of three years. Apart from this region specific
> recommendation, it was also proposed that the minimum annual fee for a
> district be calculated based on five per cent of reserve OTEF (One Time
> Entry Fee) across India.
>
> Says Association of Radio Operators of India (AROI) president and Radio
> City CEO Apurva Purohit, “This proposal has been part of the original
> recommendations where we believe that certain markets are difficult markets
> to operate in and will not be in a position to generate high revenues. At
> the same time, it is important from a community and social perspective to
> have FM stations there, thus we are asking for special license fee
> sanctions..”
>
> Agrees Radio Misty CEO Nishant Mittal, who operates stations in Siliguri
> and Gangtok, “This exemption will be beneficial to radio stations in North
> East regions as we face a lot of problems because of our demography.  Due to
> the hilly terrain, the coverage area is very limited and as this region is
> sparsely populated, the listenership is limited. Although the advertising in
> this region is increasing gradually, the return on investment is limited so,
> dispensation of annual fee would be a breather.”
>
> Radio stations in the North East have to pay an annual fee of around Rs one
> million and have to bear an additional cost of Rs 3,00,000 annually towards
> tower maintenance. This cost is multiplied according to the number of towers
> owned by the radio operators.
>
> According to Radio High managing director Milon Chakrabarty, who runs
> stations in north Bengal, “It would be difficult for radio stations in these
> regions to survive if the present annual fee structure is continued. The
> annual fee amounts to about 60 per cent of..........
> http://www.radioandmusic.com/content/editorial/news/fm-players-ne-seek-swift-fee-structure-relaxation
> - Jaisakthivel, Chennai, India
>
>
>
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