What has been done is logical. A lot of lobbying has prevented this from happening. Also the political class was not courageous enough. It‘s good this decision has been taken now. The momentum was too strong to allow FDI in print. They have allowed it in radio, TV, and several other sectors, so they could not hold it back any more. Once FDI in Indian print media progresses, they will know that there‘s no real problem.

With FDI being permitted, it‘s quite likely we will see a few new groups emerging because they will be able to access capital from the stock markets. Shekhar Gupta Editor-in-chief Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd

As far as our group is concerned, our ongoing restructuring will continue to fall into place. We have been planning for this. In the course of time, we will be studying an IPO, a foreign strategic partner. It fits into our plans and is fully in sync with what we wanted.

I think the whole ball game is changing.With FDI being permitted, it‘s quite likely we will see a few new groups emerging because they will be able to access capital from the stock markets. Earlier on, certain groups had made investment by foreign institutions a problem. I think wth FDI being permitted the FII investment issue also should be sorted out.

A holy cow has been laid to rest after almost half a century. This morning, the Indian government opened up the print media sector to foreign investment. The Union Cabinet has permitted 26 per cent foreign direct investment in the news and current affairs segment in the Indian print media and 74 per cent in the non-news, non-current affairs segment, Information and Broadcasting Minister Sushma Swaraj told journalists in Delhi.
This has reversed a decision of the Union Cabinet in 1955 which disallowed foreign investment in print media and had had hitherto been considered as the defacto law.

The government took the decision despite solid resistance from select media groups which have lobbied hard to blockade foreign investment in print. Additionally, there has been a lot of opposition within the current government too. One of the media groups probably had an inkling that something like this would happen for it carried a front page story in the leading Indian English newspaper saying that the NDA and the opposition were against any FDI in print media today and that the government should not go back on its earlier decision to disallow FDI in print media.

Talking about the decision to open up the sector, Swaraj posed a question to journalists: "Why should one sector be left closed? We started with manufacturing went on to services and now we have gone on to print."

Living Media‘s RED FM, the last of the five private FM channels in Mumbai will be launched tomorrow on 93.5 MHz.

The channel is being touted as ‘bright, energetic and passionate?a radio station with attitude‘. For rivals, already settled into their respective grooves, who are closely monitoring what RED will offer, the station says it will cut across SEC and age barriers, although a majority of its listeners will be in the same 18 to 35 age group and fall in the SEC A and B categories.
The 24 hour channel‘s programming structure also does not seem to be varying from the norm set by Radio Mirchi, Go, Win and Radio City - non stop music, melody and rhythm are the three pillars on which RED bases its content. "As added incentives Red FM provides crisp entertaining updates on traffic, weather, city specific events and the latest buzz on everything current," reads the radio station‘s promo.

Technically, Red FM claims to be in step with the best in the business. Its song scheduling software is totally automated with the latest version of international radio software. Red FM will broadcast out of a 6 Bay antenna on a 135 mtr tower situated in the heart of Mumbai. Special reflectors have been added to optimize the signal based on the geographical contours of Mumbai and its surrounding districts. In Delhi and Kolkata, where RED will begin in next few months, the transmission facilities will be co-located on the AIR towers.

The Indian government is believed to be considering a proposal to lift the 20 per cent foreign direct investment (FDI) cap in direct-to-home broadcasting ventures to 49 per cent. The difference this time: the voting rights will be capped at 20 per cent.
It is also proposing to the amend the cross media restrictions in a similar manner taking the cap up to 49 per cent but limiting the voting rights to 20 per cent, a senior information and broadcasting ministry official told indiantelevision.com late last night.

The lifting of the 20 per cent FDI ceiling means that DTH ventures could be in a position to attract enough capital. The inability to generate enough capital to flag off a DTH service has been a major constraint for Indian companies as they have been loathe to wait out the long gestation period that such a project would require to start generating profits. But one has to wait and watch whether foreign investors would be willing to cede control of a venture in which they would be pouring in hundreds of millions of dollars.

The hike in the cross media restriction limit could also prove attractive and will allow integrated media companies to exploit their content properties across another platform such as DTH. The key question is whether they would be willing to give up their voting rights.

Officials in the I&B say that an opinion has been sought from the department of company affairs on the issue of amending the FDI and cross media barriers and it has opined that prima facie it seems like the proposed changes seem all right.

However, this is not the first time that smoke signals have been sent out that the DTH regulations introduced in 2000 would be made more investment friendly. On several occasions in the past the government has made similar announcements only to find that it has not been able to translate it into action.

If the limit is removed and the norms are liberalised then it is quite likely that a risk-taking entrepreneur would take the plunge into DTH. One of the most interested players in the launching DTH in India has been global media baron Rupert Murdoch but his foray has been nipped in the bud by fearful rivals and an even more reluctant government.

To read the DTH notification click on the following link: