Global inflows set off FM radio boom

Even as Rupert Murdoch's STAR TV prepares to acquire a 20 per cent stake in Music Broadcast Pvt Ltd, which runs Radio City, a large number of global FM radio companies are jockeying hard to forge alliances with their Indian counterparts by either acquiring a stake in them or by sharing content with them.

US-based WVRM Inc, which runs the 89.3 Dhoom FM station in New Jersey, is learnt to be in talks with top Delhi- and Mumbai-based FM radio companies.

Canadian broadcaster Hitz Radio, which offers both English and Hindi music, Fairchild Radio (a western classical FM channel) and Birmingham-based BRMB and WBHE, too, are scouting for partners in India.

Sunrise Radio, the first Asian FM station in the UK, and Radio Broadcast Netherlands have expressed their interest in content creation for Indian FM stations. BBC Radio was already creating radio shows for Radio One and was open to creating radio content for other players, industry sources said.

The new-found interest of international companies has been caused by the government's decision to move from a very high annual licence fee regime, which increased by 15 per cent every year, to a revenue share model where operators need to give 4 per cent of their annual revenues to the government.

This has, in one stroke, made FM radio a viable business. And, with a booming economy, most operators expect local advertising revenues to grow substantially in the days to come.

The opening up of the sector has led to investments of Rs 1,200 crore towards the acquisition of over 280 frequencies.

"Additional investments in excess of Rs 2,000 crore have been made towards operational expenses and equipments," Rajiv Mishra, Radio Masti CEO and the head of Association of Radio Operators of India, said.

At the moment, there is a 20 per cent cap on foreign direct investment in private FM radio.

However, the ministry of information and broadcasting has told the private FM radio players that the government may re-examine the FDI policy on FM radio after April.