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The government on Monday approved a steep increase in rates of advertisements on private FM radio stations for its policies and programmes, a move that would benefit more than 400 community radio stations across the country. The new rates have been announced after eight years. The last hike was done in 2015. The pricing formula for finalising the advertising rates takes into account various factors such as city population and listenership data from the India Readership Survey (IRS) of 2019, said a statement issued by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. "The new rates approved by the ministry in the month of September, 2023 include a 43 per cent increase in the base rate taking into account the rising costs dynamics for the period of December 2015 to March 2023," it said. The statement added that with this increase, the gross base rate for FM radio advertisement will increase from Rs 52 to Rs 74 per 10 seconds and the adjustment was intended to maintain parity with current
The government will soon conduct an e-auction of 808 FM radio stations across 284 cities to further increase the footprint of radio communication, Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur said on Sunday. Addressing the Regional Community Radio Sammelan (North) here, Thakur said the government has also eased the processes for getting a license to operate radio stations, particularly community radio, by reducing the number of compliances. He said India currently has 388 FM radio stations in 113 cities across 26 states and five Union Territories. "Government is now planning a third batch of e-auction of 808 channels across 284 cities soon to further expand radio services," Thakur said.
In a bid to increase its footprint, the government is planning a fresh auction of FM radio stations, roll out an OTT platform and conduct trials of direct-to-mobile television broadcast this year, Information and Broadcasting Secretary Apurva Chandra said on Thursday. "We are also working towards an auction of FM radio stations this year. We hope to take FM radio to Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities this year," he said addressing the Broadcast Engineering Society Expo here. He said though there were a large number of FM radio stations, the service covered only 60 per cent of the country. Chandra said the government has made an allocation of Rs 2,500 crore over a four-year period for the Broadcasting Infrastructure and Network Development (BIND) Scheme to widen the reach of Prasar Bharati, including in the Left wing extremism, border and strategic areas. The scheme aims to boost public sector broadcasting in the country and focuses on infrastructure development of Prasar Bharati, including A