Radio listening has been falling steadily for over three years. So there was hope that the 97 new FM radio stations auctioned in August will bring more variety and, therefore, more listeners. However it doesn’t look like that will happen, at least not for another few years.

The old rules did not allow any company to own more than one station in a city. This meant that all stations were competing for the largest mass of listeners. The largest mass is critical because all of the Rs 1,720 crore that the private FM industry made last year came from advertising. And advertisers only put money in the top two to three stations in a city. That explains why every station in the country plays film music with jockey jabber thrown in.