The e-auction of the third batch of the private FM Radio Phase-III has received the cabinet approval, completing the coverage of private FM radio broadcasting across all States and six Union Territories. The auction in third batch will allow a rollout of a large number of cities across the country that have no private FM radio channels, which include several cities in border areas of Jammu and Kashmir and North-East States, where the population is less than one lakh.
The Cabinet approved conducting of auction of 683 radio frequencies in 236 cities in subsequent batches, which will help expand the presence of FM radio in more cities and is expected to generate a revenue of Rs 1,100 crore for the government. The government said, the auction will also cover cities in Left Wing Extremism affected districts of the country and will provide FM radio coverage to new cities, and better choice of content to listeners.
The first and second batch auctions of Private FM Radio stations under Phase III of the FM policy were conducted in 2015 and 2016 respectively. While 97 channels were sold in 56 cities in Batch-1, 66 channels in 48 cities were sold in Batch-II. The first batch of Phase 3 auction generated revenue of Rs1,187 crore, while the government had earned Rs 200.24 crore in the second batch of FM Phase 3 auction. However, the government had made more than Rs3,000 crore from these auctions with the migration fee from 245 stations that moved from Phase 2 to Phase 3.
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