Govt earns Rs 53 cr from private radioin FY09

Even as the government is mulling a third phase roll-out of FM stations, it earned Rs 52.71 crore from private radio channels during 2008-09.

During the previous financial year, 35 FM radio stations were operationalised and a total of 248 stations were functioning in the country as on March 31, 2009.

Ministry for Information and Broadcasting has prepared a cabinet note on the third phase roll-out of FM stations and official sources say that it will be soon pushed forward.

In the intervening period between the second phase and the prospective third phase roll-out of FM stations, a software has been developed by the government for monitoring the private FM license holders.

The software provides details of general information about the license holder company and also the license fee paid, both company-wise and quarter-wise for various years.

Ministry sources say that this has been a major systematic improvement and has enabled efficient realisation of revenue as well as monitoring and penalising cases of default.

The ministry officials claim that the FM policy Phase-II has been well accepted by all stakeholders, though there was initial scepticism in the ministry due to several stations failing to generate revenue, and it is now ready to roll out the third phase of FM radio expansion.