BROADCASTING: This Is (New) All India Radio..

The
tide of privatization seems to be touching the broadcasting
field at last. The ministry of Information & Broadcasting
(I&B), Government of India, has already decided to permit
five and in some cases more than five, separate low-power FM
broadcasting stations to be set up by private enterprises with
certain restrictions as to what could be broadcast.

Having issued the basic
guidelines, the ministry of I&B is inviting bids for award
of licences. At this preliminary stage it would be apt to keep
certain issues in mind so that the recipient of the services–the
common citizen–derives the maximum benefit from the process.

No Highest
Bidders Please!

We ought to have learnt from the blunder of telecom field that
inviting bids and awarding the licences to the highest bidder is
not generally in the interest of the people. The fantabulous
amounts quoted in the bids ultimately led to the sickness of
most of the private telecom companies (p-telcos). Even if we
ignore the state of the p-telcos, the process itself was
anti-user, anti-citizen because such licence fees are costs to
the companies and, therefore, are realized through enhanced
prices for the services.

In the case of
broadcasting, non-governmental enterprises bidding for licenses
will have to get their licence fee costs amounts from
advertisers and from sponsors. Such a scenario does not augur
well because then we just might have programmes dictated by big
corporate bodies. It would be a very expensive proposition to be
in–socially speaking.

Instead it would be better
to come up with a fixed amount of licence fee to be charged for
say, the first three years. (This was actually done by the DoT
while awarding licences to p-telcos for cellular services in the
four metro cities in 1993). The amount for the fee should not be
very large and it should be payable in say, four quarterly
installments and not at the beginning of the year. Up front
payments disable enterprises from investing adequately in the
facility.

The Criteria

If the highest bidder in itself is ruled out as the right
candidate, then what should be the criteria for giving out the
licences? The most appropriate yardstick would be a
mix-and-match of the quality and kind of programmes to be
provided by the bidder.

• One channel
  should be given to the state government to be shared by the
  local bodies and other government institutions.

• One channel
  should be given to non-commercial, socially minded societies
  engaged in services like information and education (on
  health, civic duties, etc.). This is generally known as
  public service broadcasting.Other channels should
  be given on the basis of the following considerations:

  • How much time
    a particular bidder will dedicate for educational and
    information programmes?

  • What will be
    the time duration for cinema-based programmes? (This should
    be the minimum).

  • n How
    much investment he would put in the studio, transmission
    facilities, and other appurtenances required for
    high-quality broadcasting?

  • How much
    maximum time will he allot for relaying the
    national/regional programmes of All India Radio?

  • How much time
    will he give to socially useful programmes approved by an
    independent committee?

  State governments should
  be allowed to form joint ventures to establish broadcast
  transmitters and studios in their districts and other towns.
  State governments may not have investible funds for this
  purpose. They may, therefore, have private enterprises set up
  the transmitter claim(s) in the state on a Build-Operate-Own
  Basis under conditions laid down by the state government. The
  exact modalities can be based on the model of Andhra Pradesh
  State Wide Area Network (APSWAN).

  It is important that an
  empowered committee does the whole process of licensing at the
  state level. The composition of that body assumes special
  significance. We suggest that this committee may consist of (a)
  an officer from the All India Radio/Doordarshan, (b) a
  representative of the state government, and (c) two or three
  eminent technical persons/businessman and an intellectual. The
  convenor could be the state government. Government of India may
  draw guidelines and prescribe the annual fee for the first three
  years for private broadcast channels (None for the government
  and for a public broadcast service society).