TRAI Seeks Public Input on FM Radio Auction Prices in Hilly Areas

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has released a paper asking for public comments on setting auction prices for FM radio channels in 18 new cities located in hilly areas under the FM Phase III policy.

This move comes after the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting asked TRAI to suggest reserve prices for these new FM channels. The ministry wants to create a new category, called category E, for cities in Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and Jammu and Kashmir.

The 18 new cities include:

• Nine cities in Jammu and Kashmir
• Seven cities in Himachal Pradesh
• Two cities in Uttarakhand

The ministry also asked TRAI to recommend prices for FM channels in Bilaspur (Chhattisgarh) and Rourkela (Odisha).

Overall, the ministry aims to expand FM radio to 20 new cities in these regions. TRAI had already provided reserve prices for Anantnag (J&K) in 2020 and Rudrapur (Uttarakhand), which falls under category D due to its population being over 100,000.

The government wants to bring FM radio to areas that don’t have coverage yet. Setting a reserve price is the first step in this expansion.

TRAI’s consultation paper asks if the reserve price for the 18 hilly cities should be Rs 5 lakh, similar to other cities in the ‘others’ category under the FM Phase III policy. It also asks if a multiplication factor of 0.7 should be used to estimate the reserve price from the average valuation of FM radio channels.

TRAI is inviting stakeholders to send their comments by August 29, with counter-comments due by September 12.

The ministry also suggested that category E cities should follow the same technical parameters as category D cities, except for effective radiated power (ERP), proposing an ERP of 750 watts to 1 kilowatt for category E.

As of March, there were 388 private FM radio channels in 113 cities, operated by 36 private FM radio companies, generating a total advertising revenue of Rs 492 crore.