NEW DELHI: With the entire process of FM radio Phase III auctions getting delayed due to various reasons, the government has decided to give more time to FM Phase II operators to migrate to Phase III.

The Information and Broadcasting Ministry has extended the last date of signing the Grant of Permission Agreement (GOPA) from 31 December to 30 June 2013.

Thus operators wanting to migrate to Phase-III regime can now execute the GOPA by 30 June 2013.

Some radio broadcasters say that this extension is a clear indication that the process for the phase III auctions will be delayed.

Earlier this year, a total of 25 broadcasting companies had applied for migrating from FM Radio Phase II to FM Radio Phase III.

Information and Broadcasting Ministry sources said these included Reliance Broadcast, Asianet Radio, BAG Infotainment, HT Media, Malayala Manorama, Music Broadcast Pvt Ltd., Radio Mid-Day West (India) Ltd., Mathrubhumi, Sun TV Network and Udaya FM.

Others are Clear Media (India) Pvt Ltd., Entertainment Network India Ltd., Gwalior Farms Pvt Ltd., India Radio Ventures Pvt Ltd., Kal Radio Ltd., Malar Publications, Muthoot Broadcasting Pvt Ltd., PCM Cement Concrete Pvt Ltd., Purvy Broadcasts Pvt Ld., Digital Radio Broadcasting Ltd., Raneka Fincom Pvt Ltd., South Asia FM Ltd., D B Corp Ltd., Syntech Informatics Pvt Ltd., and Puran Multimedia Ltd.

The government had earlier decided to commence e-auctions from December this year over a period of three years to increase the number of private FM radio channels from the present 245 to around 839 covering another 227 cities having population of over 100,000.

Even as the Government has said that private FM radio channels will be permitted to carry news bulletins of All India Radio in unaltered form, it has been clarified that broadcast relating to subjects like sporting events, traffic and weather will be treated as non-news and will therefore be permissible.

Other subjects coming under non-news and current affairs are coverage of cultural events, festivals, coverage of topics pertaining to examinations, results, admissions, career counseling, availability of employment opportunities, and public announcements pertaining to civic amenities like electricity, water supply, natural calamities, health alerts etc. as provided by the local administration.

MUMBAI: India is seeing a flurry of launches in the action movie genre ahead of digitisation as broadcasters are keen to tap into a niche segment with a particular eye for subscription revenues.

National and regional media conglomerates like UTV, Sun TV Network and Star India either have entered or have plans to foray into the genre.

UTV Action, which airs Hollywood action movies dubbed in Hindi, launched its Telugu feed to dig into the Southern market as it has an affinity for action cinema. Star India has said it plans to launch two action movie channels (English and Hindi). The Hindi channel is expected to have the dubbed content along with Hindi action movies.

Sun TV has recently launched four regional ad free action movie channels - Sun Action in Tamil, Gemini Action in Telugu, Suriyan TV in Kannada, and Surya Action in Malayalam, catering to different segment of audiences.

Will the market support so many launches? Madison Media Group CEO Punitha Arumugam notes that it is good that channels in genres like action and food are getting launched as it will help advertisers do specific targeting.

?The future of Indian television is going to be in niches. The more you are able to offer options which target a certain psychographic of the target audience, the more it is actually going to find appeal,? Arumugam says.

As per her estimates, the size of the action genre is under Rs 500 million. ?Though for action movie channels the yields are low, the cost of acquiring content is also low. I am assuming that for all such channels, action-imported, dubbed stuff is being used,? she adds.

Action movie genre is led mainly by male viewership with preference first for action, then comedy and drama.

The genre has to evolve before it becomes accommodative of so many players. Lodestar UM chief growth officer Habeeb Nizamuddin admits that it is a niche within a niche. ?In terms of percentage, the highest spend by any category on the action movie channel is about 1.5 per cent of their overall spending. There are basically two categories -automobiles and consumer durables -who spend more on this category. Still, out of their overall ad spend, they just use 1.5 per cent for action movie channels,? he says.

The entry of Star into the genre will expand the thin ad market but still it will have to depend on pay-revenue models. But that won?t be an easy task. Says GroupM CEO Vikram Sakhuja, ?There is scope for people paying for exclusive viewing of live sports and good movies. This will become a sizeable opportunity only once digital distribution of C&S reaches critical mass. Having said that, relying 100 per cent on distribution revenues, in a market that has been spoilt on free content, is highly ambitious.?

Adds UTV Action business head Sameer Ganpathy, ?With multiple channels entering the space, the genre will surely stand on its own in the years to come. At present, there is no scope for the pay revenue model for action movie channels. But as India moves towards digitisation, the pay revenue model will become a part of the mainstream model."

MUMBAI: Red FM COO Rana Barua has put in his papers after spending two years at the FM company.

Sources in the company have confirmed the development to radioandmusic.com. However, Barua was not reachable till the time of filing this report.
 
Red FM is the popular private FM brand of Marans-owned Sun TV Network. The company operates 45 FM stations in the country.

Prior to joining Red FM, Barua was with Radio City for five years as EVP and national head - programming.

Earlier, he was with Bates Enterprises for over two years.