Now, your FM station will have sports on the go

One more reason to go for that cellphone with FM radio facility - your favourite station will be airing live sports 24x 7. Be it cricket or Commonwealth Games 2010, the information and broadcasting ministry is set to propose to the Cabinet a change in the FM radio policy to allow live broadcast of all sporting events.

Updated on: Jul 14, 2009, 24:02:45 IST

None | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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One more reason to go for that cellphone with FM radio facility — your favourite station will be airing live sports 24x 7.

Be it cricket or Commonwealth Games 2010, the information and broadcasting ministry is set to propose to the Cabinet a change in the FM radio policy to allow live broadcast of all sporting events. It will cover all the existing 87 and proposed 280 FM stations.

The proposal, it is understood, is part of the Phase III of FM radio expansion. The policy will also allow 780 stations in 275 uncovered towns and cities over the next three years.

“The idea is to make FM radio a real means of wholesome entertainment, and live sports will make it more lively,” said a senior ministry official, who didn’t wish to be named as he is not authorised to speak to the media.

The move will give a boost to the industry by widening the programme basket, S Keerthivasan, chief executive officer, radio station Fever 104, said. “Sports attract a lot of listeners,” he said.

It will help the industry get a share, albeit small, in the sports broadcast industry said to be worth Rs 10,000 crore.

Most FM stations have expressed inability to break even in 10 years — their licence period — due to high operational costs and low revenues due to a slowing economy. “This will provide channels a revenue alternative,” the official said.

The note, which also allows FM stations to sources news and current affairs from Prasar Bharati, and news agencies Press Trust of India and United News of India, is expected to be submitted to Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni for approval within a fortnight.

Association of Radio Operators in India secretary general Uday Chawla welcomed the proposal, but had reservation on limited news sourcing.

“The proposed limitation on carrying news only from Prasar Bharti is not understood… it will be against the spirit of freedom of press and free competition,” he said.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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