NEW DELHI: The move to waive spectrum and royalty fee on community radio stations has come as a major relief for a sector that was just beginning to find its feet, with just 132 stations operational out of the 370 licenses issued by the Government.

It is learnt that the Department of Telecom has decided to waive the fee as it feels that the decision to hike the spectrum fees for community radios by fivefold and to keep on hold allocation of frequencies will have very serious damaging repercussions on the development agenda of the government and will stifle growth of community voices. It will also defeat the agenda of inclusive growth.

The move would help educational institutes, non-government organisations, small communities and a gram panchayats ? many of whom had received licences but had not been able to commence operations in view of the high fee.

The government had earlier this year said it was planning to raise the spectrum fee for these stations from Rs 19,000 to Rs 93,000. But community radio representatives met Telecom minister Kapil Sibal, and a recommendation from the Information and Broadcasting Ministry which has been pushing the CRS movement.

The WPC had for last nine months stopped giving clearance to 166 new applicants. A senior official said it was examining whether in wake of Supreme Court?s verdict on 2G, the spectrum fees for community radio was also needed to be auctioned.

The I&B Ministry feels that community radio has been instrumental in conveying the government?s developmental schemes to the last mile. Programmes on its flagship schemes have reached to millions of new listeners because they have now been articulated in local dialects.

Barsha Chabaria, Vice-President (North), Community Radio Association of India said the waiver would definitely be a relief. She also heads the Salaam Namaste Community Radio station, a unit of the Institute of Management Studies, Noida. But some operators feel the government should open avenues for advertisements and there should be government grants for community radios.

NEW DELHI: Indian radio stations, which do not hold the rights to the Olympic coverage will not broadcast or originate play-by-play commentary or analogous coverage of any Olympic material, whether on a live or delayed basis.

Meanwhile, actual commentary of competition events, taped from the television coverage of the rights holder for the Olympics Games in the particular territory can only be used with the express written permission of the rights holder as per the Radio News Access Rules.

The rules also say that non-rights holders shall not broadcast any other material obtained while inside an Olympic venue, including interviews. However the official press conferences held in the main press centre can be covered as long as there is a delay of 30 minutes from the conclusion of the press conference. From India, All India Radio is the only audio station to have the rights for broadcasting live commentary of the Games and events linked to them.

Furthermore, no private channel in the country is at present permitted to broadcast news, though some FM channels occasionally give short highlights.

The Access Rules are clear that Olympic material may be used only as a part of regularly scheduled daily news programs of which the actual news element constitutes the main feature. News programmes shall not be positioned or promoted as Olympic programmes.

Non-Rights Holders, provided they are holders of ENR accreditation, will have access, without equipment, to Olympic venues and, with equipment, to the main press centre.

Specifically, mobile telephone interviews with athletes and team officials are strictly prohibited from Olympic venues, including mixed zones. ENR accredited journalists are not permitted to do telephone voice reports from Olympic venues, including the Olympic Park Common Domain.

AIR will broadcast the opening and closing ceremonies of the London Olympics 2102 live on its national channel as well as on AIR FM Gold (106.4 MHz) on 27 July and 13 August respectively.

In addition, the matches relating to hockey where India has qualified and football will also be broadcast live along with the semi-finals and finals.

AIR sources told Indiantelevision.com the public broadcaster has drawn up extensive plans to give live telecast of the women?s hockey final and the men?s football final.

Though these will be carried on the national channel and FM Gold, all state capital Kendras can also relay the beam.

FM Gold will carry highlights of the previous day?s events at 7.05 am every morning. These will be picked up and relayed by all the capital Kendras and also presented later in regional language versions.

AIR will also carry regular updates and breaking news during normal programme whenever any major story breaks.

There will be elaborate news coverage with inputs and feeds from London, the sources said.

AIR had in fact commenced programmes on the Olympics from 10 April, beaming two programme every month till June and one in July. This was also relayed by the Kendras in state capitals and in regional versions. This also included interviews with those Indians who have earlier won medals at the Olympics.

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