839 new FM radio channels to be auctioned: FM

By A Correspondent

Finance Minister P Chidambaram proposed to expand private FM radio services to 294 more cities. The Minister said that about 839 new FM radio channels will be auctioned in 2013-14 and, after the auction, all cities having a population of more than 100,000 will be covered by private FM radio services. Commenting on this, Ashish Pherwani, Partner, Ernst & Young says “It is great that so many more radio licenses will come up for auction – this will give a boost to the Indian FM radio industry. pricing and auction methodology will play an important role”