So is this the beginning of another campaign to get sops? If it's not the oil industry crying about subsidies, it is the private airlines crying about low priced tickets. And now it seems, we are going to hear the radio industry cry over their viability. I think the biggest issue here is the financing that has come into these industries.. In Oil, it is established corporate houses, in radio, it is mostly established media houses, and in airlines too, the crying started in right earnest once Kingfisher got in and realised that moneymaking was not the chumps game it seemed.
Compare all these with the internet industry, where the capital was almost entirely risk capital put up by VC's, entrepreneurs etc. They rarely groan about the many issues facing the industry, and have simply worked at figuring out their own unique ways to make money. And of course, a lot of them have fallen by the wayside, as they shd in a normal business environment. Unfortunately, the other industries don;t seem to get this simple fact of business life. I hope they will understand. factors like government policy, music rights etc have to be counted when you are bidding, not lamented on after you have won with a foolish bid.
RE:Radio FM
by Sahil Manekia on Jul 15, 2007 12:16 AM Permalink
Err.. I don't see what business the government has in extracting license fees from radio on top of which they pay taxes.. This is not a mai-baap sarkar anymore- anybody should have the right to set up radio. Not just Mukesh Ambani and other bigshots who can afford the fee.
Furthermore,the govt has no business banning multiple frequencies- its stupid retrograde logic. To point that out isn't 'whining' as you put it..it is a real issue.
Radio still has popularity in the circle of educated,retired and knowledge hunting people. Radio only can give quality programme which are having no commercial value. Since AIR is an non profit organisation, it can go ahead with its programmes and always people are there to support them. Still the morning national regional news enjoys the support of all people of this country.
If any FM operators just want to play music and earn money,it simply proves they are not experts in the business. They will soon vanish and only those capable of innovation in FM broadcasting would succeed.
Few points about the article. 1. Currently the Radio FM channels are running to the government for help in cost reduction. This is fine. But the same government when it starts imposing restrictions on content, these same channels will cry foul about loss of independence. So they need to decide if they need the government or NOT. You cant have it both ways. 2. Content has a cost. If FM channels find content from Yash Raj films or T Series too high, they are full liberty to avoid buying from them. After all this is a free market we are operating in, especially with the entertainment industry. We are not talking about atta, dal type of issues, to be subsidizing some one. 3. One of the FM channel owners from some remote village in North said that he can not be expected to pay the same rate as the channel in Mumbai. This is a valid arguement but taking this forward, does it mean that he will pay a different rate for a Anand-Miling ((&&^%) music and a AR Rahman music. If content providers start differentiating based on the every parameter, then how will they survive. 4. "Radio is the voice of the poor": I am surprised. We are not talking about AIR. We are talking about FM channels who dont do any public service broadcasting but are purely for entertainment purpose.
The government's approach towards radio is the clearest indication that India is actually governed by the bureaucracy. If the people's interest had been kept in mind(as one would expect in a democracy), radio would have flowered long ago, instead of being deliberately kept down citing "national interests" The worl over, radio has been the voice of the poor, and here we have a government that professoes to be for the poor, keeping radio doan. What an irony!!!
