TRAI Recommends Four Changes For FM Radio Channels

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India issued a set of recommendations concerning FM radio broadcasting on Tuesday.

The topics included annual licence fees for radio channels, extending the FM radio permission period of 15 years by another three years, and broadcasting independent news, among others.

Here are the key recommendations:

According to the rule dated July 25, 2011, FM radio stations were required to pay the government a fee every year. This fee was either 4% of the money that the radio station makes in a year (gross revenue) or 2.5% of a one-time entry fee for the city, whichever is more.

Stakeholders were asked if these rules are fair and, if not, to suggest a new way to decide how much radio stations should pay. They recommended changing the rule. Instead of the entry fee, the fee should be 4% of the money that the radio station makes in a year, which shouldn't include the Goods and Services Tax.

According to the rules, FM radio players can broadcast for 15 years. But these rules don't say anything about extending the duration if needed. During the pandemic, FM radio stations had a tough time with their businesses. So, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting asked TRAI for suggestions on extending the 15-year period by three years.

The suggestion from TRAI is that the government should take steps to help FM radio stations deal with the challenges caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The rules state that private FM radio stations can play news from All India Radio without changing it. But they can't have their own news shows. Right now, FM radio stations can talk about local things like traffic or updates about exams.

The recommendation given by TRAI is that private FM radio stations should be allowed to include news and current affairs shows, but they can only do so for 10 minutes per hour. The authority said they should follow the same rules for news as AIR does.

With certain advanced phones, companies are turning off FM radio to promote their music streaming services.

The recommendation is that all phones with FM radio hardware should keep it turned on and working. They should not be allowed to turn it off. There should be a committee to make sure companies follow this rule, and you can also complain online if they don't.