All India Radio has pitched in to offer infrastructure services to private FM players. Doordarshan too is getting ready to act as an uplink hub and offer uplink facilities to private broadcasters. Plans are afoot to offer uplink facilities to at least 15 channels by October this year, senior government officials said.

This will be for the first time that the state-owned broadcasters will open their facilities for use by the private sector.

In a presentation made to private FM broadcasters on Tuesday, senior Prasar Bharati and AIR officials offered private FM players the use of AIR's infrastructure facilities to re-locate and maintain their transmitters. All India Radio plans to work in technical collaboration with Broadcast Engineering Consultants India (Becil), the technical arm of AIR.

Confirming the move, senior officials from the I&B ministry said AIR has infrastructure facilities in over 20 of the 40 locations where private FM players are slated to kick-start their operations. "All these players can share our existing facilities, which will lead to economies of scale and reduce their cost of operations," officials said. Though the players will have to own the transmitters, AIR can offer infrastructure and maintenance services, officials said. In certain locations where AIR does not have the infrastructure, plans are afoot to set up the facilities in collaboration with private players.

As per a co-location clause in the FM tender documents, broadcasters in metropolitan cities have to use shared facilities to co-locate their transmitters.

In may be noted that the government has paved the way for the entry of private third party infrastructure service providers in FM radio business. Already, over half-a-dozen private service providers are pitching with FM broadcasters to offer them turnkey infrastructure services. The government is in the process of issuing Letters of Intent to private FM broadcasters.

Ministry officials have indicated that the government will not have any objection if Prasar Bharati enters the uplink hub business. "The matter is for the Prasar Bharati board to decide," a senior I&B official said.

The government has recently relaxed uplink norms by allowing satellite channels to uplink from within the country irrespective of equity holding or management control. It has paved the way for making India an uplink hub by allowing both broadcasters and non-broadcasters to set up facilities with 49 per cent foreign equity.

However, all channels uplinking from the country have to seek licence from the government and pay appropriate licence fee.