With the Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) giving its nod for the auction of FM radio licenses, the Information and Broadcasting Ministry expects to complete the Phase III auctions this year.
Talking to media persons at the sidelines of an event, I&B Secretary Uday Kumar Varma said that the ministry had approached the EGoM requesting for some changes in bid RFPs (request for proposals).
The change in RFP approved was that FM auction will be done on basis of lump sum money instead of a percentage of the total revenues.
Revenue
He said the Government expects to generate Rs 1,500 crore as revenues from the FM Radio auctions, adding that it expects to complete the auction by 2013-14. Meanwhile, the decision on migration fee from Phase II to Phase III has been referred to Telecom Regulatory Authority of India.
The auction will be conducted for 839 radio stations and will see the reach of FM Radio increase to 294 cities.
digitisation
Varma also said that the second phase of digitisation is on track which will see 38 cities go digital by March end.