Creation of new FM station presents great opportunity for new players
Narasimha Raju
More than 800 new FM stations to be added in Phase III auctioning
Bangalore November, 2011. The Government of India’s announcement to
create new private FM station across India has opened market for new
and non-media players to reap enter the booming media industry. This
opportunity will not only help new players and entrepreneurs to
compete in metros and other big cities but also in the smaller towns
of the border States like J&K, NE States and island territories. The
process is expected to begin by the end of September or early October
this year, starting with applications from private players. It would
be followed by scrutiny of applications and on-line auction
thereafter. Thus year 2012 will be watershed year for radio sector in
India.
“The new FM radio policy has presented great opportunity for the new
players but at the same time it has it’s own challenges in terms of
expertise and experience. They would need to compete with experience
of the existing radio operators. The new players willing to break into
new territory might have the money but not the intricate understanding
of the media market”, said Sanjay Salil, Managing Director, MediaGuru
Consultants Pvt Ltd., a comprehensive media consultancy firm offering
300 degrees consultancy, including for radio.
“ The key to the FM station bidding will be the scientific estimates
of the revenue potential of the specific towns, to reflect on an
extended long term business plan, which MediaGuru computes based on
over a dozen media , technology and income indices,“ said Mr Sanjay
Krishan Das, Sr VP, MediaGuru, heading its radio vertical.
The Phase II expansion of FM radio resulted in huge growth in FM radio
industry and opened up new areas of employment opportunities. However
many cities remained untouched as only the cities with a population of
three lakh and above besides State Capitals were taken up for bidding
during the first two phases of FM radio expansion. In due course this
created strong pull for FM radio in other cities. According to new
policy guidelines all cities with a population of one lakh plus have
been awarded FM station bandwidth, leading to over 800 new stations to
be launched in the Phase III.