New Delhi: In order to usher in new/enhanced experience of FM radio in more cities, the Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Shri NarendraModion 20th Deecember 2017 has approved the auction of 683 channels in 236 cities in subsequent batches under FM Phase-III expansion plan.
According to the Central government the complete roll-out of FM Phase-III auctions, all the 29 States and 6 out of the 7 UTs (except Dadra & Nagar Haveli) will be covered by private FM radio broadcasting and this will generate direct and indirect employment to more than 10,000 persons on a pan India basis. These auctions will also yield an estimated revenue more than ₹.1,100 crore
With the roll out of the third batch auctions a large number of those cities across the country will be benefitted where there are no private FM radio channels, which include several cities in border areas of J&K and North-East States, where the population is less than one lakh. This batch of auction will also cover cities in districts, which are badly affected by Left Wing Extremism. It will provide FM radio coverage to new cities besides better content choice to the listeners.
Batch-I and Batch-II auctions of private FM radio Stations under Phase-III of the FM Policy Guidelines, as approved by the Cabinet in 2011, were conducted in 2015 and 2016 respectively. 97 channels in 56 cities were sold in Batch-I. 66 channels in 48 cities were sold in Batch-II.
In order to ensure complete transparency, the Simultaneous Multiple Round Ascending (SMRA) process is being adopted.
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