MUMBAI:  In what has come as a milestone decision in the history of Indian Radio, All India Radio News (AIR), can now be broadcasted by Private FM channels in India in English and Hindi respectively. The decision was announced by Information and Broadcasting Minister, Rajyavardhan Rathod, at an event, held in Delhi today. The event was attended by noteworthy people like Prasar Bharati CEO Shashi Shekhar Vempati, DG (News) AIR Ira Joshi, Secretary, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Amit Khare, apart from Rathod.

On this historic decision, Prasar Bharti Chairman A Surya Prakash said, “I am very happy to learn that All India Radio News will now be broadcast by private FM channels. This is really a very historic moment as India’s public service broadcaster collaborates with Private radio broadcasters. This matter has been under discussion for quite some time.”

“We already have our FM channels, FM Rainbow and FM Gold and in fact FM Gold has been carrying All India Radio news. But, this in terms of dozens and dozens of Private FM stations, across the country, is a huge development and I am very happy as the chairman of Prasar Bharti that this has come up,” he added.

Surya Prakash further exclaimed, "All India Radio, as everybody knows is a most credible news platform, we have in the country and I think, it’s truly a win-win situation. It is an era of collaboration and convergence and this is a very good example of that."

Further revealing about how the radio station will go about this news sharing, Prakash said, “As we all know, this is a pilot project and this experiment will be on till end of May 2019. And during this period, All India Radio and Prasar Bharti will make assessment of how this arrangement is going and we will then take this forward.”

Thanking I&B Ministry’s Rajyavardhan  Rathod and private broadcasters, A Surya Prakash said, “I also want to take this opportunity to thank our honourable minister Shri Rajyavardhan Rathodji for having agreed to launch this collaboration and to get All India Radio News onto Private FM channels. I also want to congratulate All India Radio and the association of Private FM broadcasters for this collaboration. I really look forward to this arrangement working out very well.”

Information and Broadcasting Minister Rajyavardhan Rathore also spoke at the event as he expressed happiness about AIR news now reaching common man, using any FM station in the country. With this step, Rathod revealed aim of All India Radio to create awareness as well as empower them while he also mentioned that generating revenue is secondary. Rathod also thanked FM Radio stations and media houses, who are collaborating with All India Radio in this milestone stepping up of both AIR and Prasar Bharti.

DG (News) of AIR Ira Joshi also called this move – a historic milestone.

Meanwhile, in order to broadcast news, broadcasted by All India Radio (AIR), Private Radio stations will have to register with AIR news. Details about the registration and other technical parameters are available on http://newsonair.nic.in/

Below are the rules and restrictions, Private FM stations will have to follow in order to broadcast AIR news

• The AIR News bulletins shall have to be carried in toto, in an unaltered form.
• Private FM stations will be allowed to carry AIR news bulletin either simultaneously or deferred live, by not more than 30 minutes. In case of deferred live, an announcement should precede about the deferred live broadcast.
• FM stations will also have to carry commercials along with the news sourced from AIR.
• Since, FM stations will source news from All India Radio; they will have to give credits to AIR for the same.

Meanwhile, the news bulletins of AIR are currently carried through the terrestrial mode and are also available on the DTH platform including DD Free Dish, which is free to air.