Trai issued a consultation paper on Tuesday, seeking industry views on whether news and current affairs should be allowed on private FM radio stations, or not.
NEW DELHI: Will news and current affairs programmes be finally allowed on private FM radio? After years of deliberation on this, the issue is all set to be debated once again by industry stakeholders, before the regulator can give its recommendation to the government.
Way back in 2006, an expert panel (ICE Committee) comprising representatives from media and IT sectors, constituted by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), had favoured news on private FM.
Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) issued a consultation paper on Tuesday, seeking industry views on whether news and current affairs should be allowed on private FM radio stations, or not.
The consultation process between the regulator and the industry would focus on the duration of news and current affairs programmes, if it is allowed, and also methods of monitoring this content.
Even as Trai monitors only the ‘carriage’ aspects of broadcasting, and not those related to ‘content’, the regulator has been asked by the information and broadcasting (I&B) ministry to issue its recommendation on whether ‘news’ should be allowed on private FM stations or not.
Although the government announced privatisation of FM radio in 1999, news and current affairs programmes have not been allowed yet.
It is believed that the government fears that monitoring content across hundreds of private FM radio channels may be a difficult task, thereby barring news.
Apart from news and current affairs, the Trai consultation process would also take up issues like revision in the FDI cap for FM radio stations.
Currently, foreign investment is capped at 20% in private FM.
Also under examination would be norms for satellite radio, and whether there should be uniform guidelines for FM and satellite radio.
At present, there’s no FDI cap for satellite radio, nor are there any restrictions on broadcasting news and
current affairs programmes.
m_nivedita@dnaindia.net
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