Indian Cabinet clears over 800 New FM radio Channels in 294 cities of India
The Union Cabinet in its meeting today has approved the proposal of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to approve of the 'Policy Guidelines on Expansion of FM radio broadcasting services through private agencies (Phase-Ill)'. Cabinet has also cleared the proposal of the Ministry for conducting ascending e-auction, as followed by Department of Telecommunications for the auction of 3G and BWA spectrum, mutatis-mutandis, for award of license of FM Channels, as recommended by the GoM on Licensing Methodology for FM Phase-Ill. FM Phase-Ill Policy extends FM radio services to about 227 new cities, in addition to the present 86 cities, with a total of 839 new FM radio Channels in 294 cities. Phase -III policy will result in coverage of all cities with a population of one lakh and above with private FM radio channels. Salient features of the approved Policy for Phase-Ill as against Phase-11 are as under;- i) Radio operators have been permitted carriage of news bulletin...