NEW DELHI: The Government has decided to commence e-auctions for Phase III of FM radio from December this year.

The auctions will be over a period of three years to increase the number of private FM radio channels from the present 245 to around 839, covering another 227 cities having population of over 0.1 million.

Meanwhile, a total of 25 FM radio broadcasting companies have applied for migrating from FM Radio Phase II to FM Radio Phase III. The Government has extended the last date for grant of signing of Migration Grant of Permission Agreement (GOPA) to 30 June.

Information and Broadcasting Ministry sources told Indiantelevision.com that these 25 include Reliance Broadcast Network, Asianet Radio, BAG Infotainment, HT Media, Malayala Manorama, Music Broadcast, Radio Mid-Day West (India) Ltd, Mathrubhumi, Sun TV Network and Udaya FM, Clear Media (India), Entertainment Network India Ltd (ENIL), Gwalior Farms Pvt Ltd, India Radio Ventures, Kal Radio, Malar Publications, Muthoot Broadcasting, PCM Cement Concrete, Purvy Broadcasts, Digital Radio Broadcasting, Raneka Fincom, South Asia FM, DB Corp, Syntech Informatics, and Puran Multimedia.

Even as the Government has said that private FM radio channels will be permitted to carry news bulletins of All India Radio in unaltered form, it has been clarified that broadcast relating to subjects like sporting events, traffic and weather will be treated as non-news and will, therefore, be permissible.

Other subjects coming under non-news and current affairs are coverage of cultural events, festivals, coverage of topics pertaining to examinations, results, admissions, career counseling, availability of employment opportunities, and public announcements pertaining to civic amenities like electricity, water supply, natural calamities, health alerts etc. as provided by the local administration.

Meanwhile, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology has welcomed the decision to go to Phase III and to increase the FDI from 20 to 26 per cent and the decision to allow private operators to own more than one channel but not more than 40 per cent of the total channels in a city subject to a minimum of three different operators in the city.

The Committee was happy that permission for FM Channels is going to be awarded through ascending e-Auction as followed by Department of Telecommunications for the auction of 3G and BWA Spectrum, mutates-mutandis as recommended by Group of Ministers (GoM) as licensing Methodology for FM Phase III.

The Committee observed that the Ministry has constituted two Committees - Inter ministerial Committee, and Application Review Committee - to guide and supervise the process of e-Auction.

The Committee said this was ?certainly a step forward in the direction of fast expansion of FM Radio Services in the country as it will give further boost to the FM Services movement?. The Committee wanted the two Committees to meet on regular basis.