MUMBAI: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India on Saturday recommended that the reserve price for FM radio channels for 273 new cities has been fixed at 80 per cent of the valuation for each city. The reserve price will be 80 per cent of the valuation except for the cities in the northeast region, and Jammu and Kashmir for which it has been fixed at 40 per cent of the valuation for each city.

The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) had sent a letter to TRAI in August last year, requesting it to furnish recommendations on fresh reserve price for 283 cities -- 260 new and 23 existing, under FM phase-III policy.

TRAI finalised its recommendations after considering all comments received from stakeholders during the consultation process and further analysis of the issues.

TRAI recommended that the valuation of FM radio channels in 273 new cities has been worked out as a simple mean of the three valuation approaches which are based on population of the city, per capita gross state domestic product, listenership of FM Radio, per capita gross revenue earned by the existing FM Radio operators, and market intensity index of various cities.

"The reserve price for FM radio channels for each of the 273 new cities has been fixed at 80 per cent of the valuation for each city except for the cities situated in North East (NE) region, Jammu and Kashmir for which reserve price has been fixed at 40 per cent of the valuation for each city," TRAI said.

“For 10 cities of 'others' category, having a population less than 1 lakh in the border areas of Jammu and Kashmir and the northeast region, the reserve price is kept as Rs 5 lakh for each channel of each city”, TRAI said.