New Delhi, Aug. 7 : Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Arun Jaitley said on Saturday that the Phase-III auctions of FM Radio would provide a new roadmap for radio broadcasting in the country.
Chairing a consultative committee meeting of his ministry on the theme “All India Radio and DD News”, Jaitley said this process would give fillip to the expansion of radio services across 294 cities and 835 channels.
He said that soon radio news would reach smaller towns and cities, thereby providing quality information to the audiences.
On the role of Prasar Bharati, Jaitley said that the platform provided content with a public service mandate, keeping aside profit motives.
He cited the recent example of Kisan Channel addressing the communication needs of the farming community.
He also informed members that the edu-entertainment format was being introduced to add variety to the platform.
Regarding new initiatives, Jaitley mentioned the Talkathon as having a visible impact.
Presentations were also made by DG (News): DD and DG (News): AIR on behalf of Prasar Bharati, giving an overview of the two platforms, programming reach and content and related matters.
Committee members appreciated the measures taken by the I and B Ministry, and gave their suggestions to enhance the reach of these platforms, especially in areas that required quality information dissemination and programming.
Suggestions were also made with regard to steps to improve the packaging of the content and popularising programmes through an integrated marketing approach across platforms.
Col. Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, Minister of State for I and B, Dr. Sanjay Jaiswal, Anil Madhav Dave, Jaya Bachchan, Neeraj Shekhar and Vivek Gupta were among the others who attended the meeting. (ANI)