The 29 December deadline for payment of license fees by private FM radio players in metros has been extended by eight months, costing the national exchequer a "notional loss of Rs 46 million".

The decision to defer the roll out of services, announced by I&B minister Sushma Swaraj over the weekend, was prompted by technical problems related to co-location in Delhi, Kolkata and Chennai where players have entered into an agreement with AIR for the use of its transmission towers. In Mumbai, where neither DD nor AIR have towers, private players have been exempted from the condition of co-location for a period of two years and have been allowed to make interim individual arrangements within the next four months. After that, operators will be required to start paying license fees, whether services start or not.

Players in the non metro cities on the other hand, have been given a seven-day ultimatum to either pay their license fees or forfeit their bank guarantees, which is equivalent to the first year?s fee. FM licenses have been given for 37 stations, of which 19 are in the metros. As per the license agreement for the metros, the FM licensees agreed to ?be part of the consortium of all licensees in each center and install transmission facilities at a single location and share the transmission resources.? The consortium, however, could not be formed as some prospective players went to court alleging changes in licensing conditions after the bids. Those who did not seek legal recourse were allowed to form a consortium five months ago. In Delhi, Chennai and Kolkata, FM players signed an agreement earlier in December with pubcaster Prasar Bharati for use of AIR transmission towers to collocate their transmitters. However, the government realized at the end of the month that AIR itself would take four months to upgrade its towers, and another four months would be needed for the licensees to start their services.

The annual license fee for all the 37 stations spread across 19 cities totals Rs 1587.2 million. The licensees include the Times Group?s Bennett, Coleman and Co. (12 stations), Star India-Ispat group?s Music Broadcast (six stations), The India Today Group?s Living Media (three stations), Vertex Broadcasting of the Dabur Group, Millennium Broadcast (three stations), Midday (three stations) and Udaya TV (one station). Private FM players, however, will not be allowed to broadcast news and current affairs programmes.

As war rhetoric beams ever louder, Pakistan on Saturday issued orders to all cable TV operators in the country to stop relaying broadcasts of Indian satellite television channels.

This is the second time in the last three months that orders to black out Indian TV channels have been issued. However, the last time round mainly news channels were included in the ambit of the ban. Following the 11 September WTC attack the All-Pakistan Cable Operators? Association had imposed a countrywide ban on airing five Indian channels "propagating against Islam and Pakistan."

The channels, which were blacked out then were Zee News, Star News, Star Plus, Jain TV and all Doordarshan channels.

Chief of the Pakistan Telecom Authority Maj Gen Shabzada Alam Malik has warned that cable operators defying the ban would be penalised and their licences cancelled.

The Indian government, meanwhile, said it is closely monitoring the contents of Pakistan?s state-owned television ? Pakistan Television - on account of its anti-India propaganda. However, information & broadcasting minister Sushma Swaraj said no decision had yet been taken on banning the channel.

Condemning the false propaganda being carried out by the channel, the minister said that any decision would be taken only after consultation with ministry of external affairs. Any decision to ban a foreign channel has to be ratified by a committee of secretaries, Swaraj has been quoted as saying. PTV was banned at the time of war in Kargil.

Though official orders have not gone out, there are reports of a similar ban on PTV in some parts of India. District authorities in Meerut on Thursday night banned telecast of PTV channel through cable operators till January 25, 2002, to check "anti-national publicity".

Meanwhile, the Central Monitoring Service, under the I&B Ministry, has stepped up the content monitoring exercise of different television and radio channels, especially after the beginning of the war in Afghanistan, ministry officials were quoted as saying.

CMS is involved in monitoring of content in Indian and foreign media on a regular basis and its reports are sent to several ministries including home, defence, external affairs and I&B.