Private FM radio stations could soon be airing sports, news, and current affairs content as part of their broadcast.
Representatives of the Association of Radio Operators of India, which has been lobbying aggressively for this purpose, met officials of the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting on October 23 and later claimed that they had been assured permission for such content on the FM platform.
The body would be approaching the ministry with a formal application by the first week of November, which would subsequently be sent for Cabinet approval, said Rajiv Mishra, director (FM stations), BAG Films, who is also an AROI executive committee member.
The ministry, on the other hand, appeared to play possum. "There is nothing of the sort happening now," said N Baijendra Kumar, joint secretary in the ministry.
"We met ministry officials and were given an in-principle approval. We need more genres beyond the film music format to survive, and that can happen only if sports and news content is allowed," said Mishra of Bag Films that won ten radio licences in the second round of FM auctions.
The ministry has had reservations over unregulated news and current affairs content being aired in remote parts of the country. In politically sensitive times, such localised news content could play havoc. The industry, on the other hand, has pointed out that it was inconsistent to have private news channels but not FM stations airing news content.
Reacting to the ministry' concerns over unregulated content, Mishra said, "As per our licence agreement, we have to keep a record of all our aired content for 90 days, which can be called upon by the government any time. Also, we will abide by the programming code of conduct that is applied to All India Radio."
The licence holders pay a license fee of Rs 1,200 crore (Rs 12 billion) and invest another Rs 1,200 crore in setting up new stations. There was a need to boost revenue, stated an industry expert.
Also, such content will create brand differentiation in metros like Mumbai and Delhi, which have over four operational FM stations.
