The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has released its Recommendations on “Reserve Prices for auction of FM Radio channels.”
The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) had sought TRAI’s recommendations on reserve price for auction of FM Radio channels in 18 category ‘E’ cities situated in the states of Himanchal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and the Union Territory (UT) of Jammu & Kashmir for the expansion of Private FM Radio.
Acknowledging the challenges faced by the industry, whose revenues have been stagnant since the pandemic, TRAI has recommended cuts in reserve prices for FM radio channel auctions.
It suggested that the reserve price for auction should be set at Rs 0.83 crore for Bilaspur, Rs 1.20 crore for Rourkela and Rs 0.97 crore for Rudrapur. For category ‘E’ cities in hill states and border regions, the reserve price should be Rs 3.75 lakh. It also recommended that FM operators in category ‘E’ cities should have a minimum net worth of Rs 30 lakh, while existing net worth rules for other categories of cities should continue.
To support the financial sustenance of the operators, it recommended that private FM radio operators should be allowed to broadcast 10 minutes of news and current affairs programs every hour.
“The authorised entity shall follow the programme code for news content as prescribed by the Central Government from time to time,” it added.
It also proposed that FM operators be permitted to stream their radio programmes online at the same time, but without user-controlled features like download, playback or replay.
To help the operators financially, it recommended that the annual license fee of a FM radio channel should be delinked from Non-Refundable One Time Entry Fee (NOTEF) for all licensees including existing licensees. The license fee should be calculated as 4 percent of the Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) of the FM radio channel during the respective financial year.
It also said that Prasar Bharati should share its land and tower infrastructure (LTI) as well as common transmission infrastructure (CTI) with private broadcasters at concessional rental rates while taking full recovery of operational expenses.
“Successful bidders should be given multiple options for payment of bid amount similar to the spectrum auction done by Department of Telecommunications,” it recommended.
The authority also added that “The condition for mandatory colocation of transmission infrastructure should be removed, and the entities authorised for Terrestrial Radio Service should be allowed to share infrastructure, on voluntary basis with the entities of broadcasting services, telecom services, infrastructure providers as per technical and commercial feasibility.”
The regulator’s move follows disappointing bids at recent auctions. In July 2025, only 63 of 730 available channels across 234 cities found buyers, highlighting weak industry demand despite government efforts to expand FM coverage. India currently operates 388 private FM radio channels across 113 cities.