MxMIndia

Tag: FM radio

  • FM radio network Radio One is likely to go 24×7 English for in Mumbai and Delhi stations

    Radio One likely to turn English in Mumbai & Delhi

    By Robin Thomas

     

    FM radio network Radio One is likely to go English for its Mumbai and Delhi stations, MxMIndia has learnt from industry sources. This shift is likely to take place next month or early February 2012. MxMIndia did not receive any official confirmation from Radio One at the time of writing this, though industry sources have confirmed the development. Radio One, a joint venture between Next Mediaworks Ltd and BBC worldwide, operates in seven cities – Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru, Pune and Ahmedabad.

     

    An English FM radio station in Mumbai and Delhi may add a fair deal of differentiation in music, but what remains to be seen is how advertiser-friendly it will be, given that listenership levels are lower than those playing just Hindi music.

     

    MxMIndia spoke to few industry players on whether Mumbai and Delhi markets will open up to an English FM station. One of them was of the view that an English FM station in Mumbai in particular will create a much needed differentiation in terms of music. There is a market for English audience, but it may take some time to get established, what remains to be seen is how the advertisers will react to this change. Another industry observer was of the view that while there is a market for English music listenership in both Mumbai and Delhi, it could still be challenging for the FM station in terms of revenue generation, as the audience size is small.

     

    On the other hand, Sunil Kumar, MD, Big River Radio feels the fact that there are audiences willing to pay a huge sum for rock concerts, the number of English newspapers, the popularity of serials such as Friends, are sure indications that there is a market for an English FM station. “There is a market for English music listeners, these are the people who have an international or global outlook, they travel abroad and are well attuned to English music. An English FM radio station will bring an additional audience to radio – that is, those who do not listen to radio. Just look at the number of English movie channels, English GECs, news channels, they are doing extremely well. Therefore, for a premium channel you don’t need a large audience but, you can charge huge premium for the audience they deliver to, which is often people in the higher socio-economic group,” he said.

     

    It may be recalled that when Fever FM was launched in Mumbai, it initially aired both Hindi and English songs after which they had to completely switch to Hindi. Radio One too has experimented for long with its English format in its earlier avatar of Go92.5 and Radio Mid-day. Market pressures and the desire to catch up with the more mass Bollywood hit music format got it to go completely in Hindi. Hit FM is the only 24×7 English FM station in Delhi, while Mumbai currently has no fulltime English FM station. The other 24×7 English FM stations in the country are Radio Indigo in Bangalore and Chennai Live in Chennai. All India Radio’s FM Rainbow station also plays English music.

     

  • The 'soup song' is a rage on FM too, but would it have had such a following if it hadn't viralled online?

    Would ‘Kolaveri Di’ have been a rage if it was only aired on FM?

    By Robin Thomas

     

    Already a huge hit online, with more than 94 lakh views on YouTube, and more than 46,000 ‘Likes’ on Facebook, ‘Why this Kolaveri Di’, a Tamil-English song promoting the Tamil film ‘3’, has become a national rage. The song became so popular online that it was instantly picked up by FM stations across the country irrespective of their language. The Chennai station of Big FM and Radio Mirchi however claim to have aired the song first on radio and that the song was heavily promoted on radio even before it became a craze online.

     

    According to a Big FM spokesperson, “The song is a rage – both nationally and internationally. Big FM premiered the song at our Chennai station with the musicians, following which it went on YouTube. It was the power of the product – lyrics and music that made it a hit! Radio today, has a key role to play in marketing and creating viral music, and in this case too, it worked! We played the song, across our stations in its Tamil-English version.”

     

    So, would the song would have created a similar sensation had it been aired only on FM radio? While there are those in the industry who believe that radio has the power and the reach to create a huge sensation, there is a section in the FM radio sector that are of the view that a ‘Kolaveri Di’ kind of national rage was only possible through Facebook and YouTube, as radio is more city/ town or even state-oriented.

     

    Vehrnon Ibrahim, National Programming Head, Oye! FM

    Vehrnon Ibrahim, National Programming Head, Oye! FM said, “I doubt the song would have been a huge sensation on air (radio) as compared to the craze online. We started playing this song only after it became a huge sensation on the social networking sites. It’s quite an entertaining song, a very filmy story, and we cover all that is filmy or entertaining. We are therefore following the story and not the song.”

     

    Kartik Kalla, National Programming Director, Radio City said, “Yes of course radio would have created such a rage. After all it’s the same person who tunes in to FM and online so whether radio airs it first or after two days is immaterial.”

     

    “We have a very robust policy where songs are tested with the listeners before being put on air. But honestly with Koleveri Di that was not required because it has broken all kinds of records online and you certainly can’t ignore that!” he added.

     

    Ravindran Nair, Director Programmes, Radio Mango

    Ravindran Nair, Director Programmes, Radio Mango, also believes that the song would have been a huge sensation had it been aired first on radio. “Definitely it would have been a hit. Radio has done similar things very successfully. In our case, a song from an album “Coffee on MG road” called “Palavattam” by actor/director/singer Vineeth Srinivasan became huge with radio airplay. Social media has become a part of marketing mix for most products and films and music will be no exception” he explained.

     

    On a different note, Shaan Menon, Manager Content CLUB FM stated, “I don’t think the song would have been such a rage had it been aired on radio first, it is all because of YouTube or Facebook. Just like Kolaveri, any radio link or radio creative such as a promo or an interview bite can also become viral. It’s unpredictable, but will happen for sure. These days, the internet is the first testing platform for any creative product. So, a product getting well sold on the internet is undoubtedly the choice of the masses! Social Network helps us to extend the reach of our product to more number of people.”

     

    He further said, “Radio is confined to a city or a state or to a nation, the possibilities for a Channel to fly high taking the flight of a social networking site is a huge positive sign. Radio is a medium which plays the right taste of the people. It’s just like his favourite restaurant where the listener gets his favourite food.”

     

    Some of the FM stations playing the ‘Kolaveri Di’ song are Radio Mirchi, Red FM, Big FM, Radio City, Oye! FM; Club FM, Radio Mango, Radio Hello and Radio Choklate.

     

    Of course the frequency of the song is pretty high among the south-based FM stations, particularly those in Chennai. The frequency of the song played on the Big FM Chennai station is also said to be very high as compared to its stations in other parts of the country. According to Radio Hello’s website, ‘Kolaveri Di’ has already become the top most popular song in its ‘Top 10 songs for this week’ list. Club FM, a Mathrubhumi initiative, used to play this song for 16 hours a day with a special promo along with it; Radio Mango, another FM station in Kerala, a Malayala Manorama initiative, used to play this song twice per hour, with heavy rotation. Radio City plays this song three to four times a day across their 20 stations whereas Oye! FM plays it for 172 hours.

     

    Interestingly, ‘Kolaveri Di’ is not the first song to have crossed language barriers among FM stations. Even earlier songs like, ‘Aika Dajiba’, a popular Marathi song; Tamil Song, ‘Apdi pode’ were played in various FM stations in the country irrespective of their language.

  • Is Phase III a chance to expand listenership reach, or further consolidate positions in a particular region. It’s both, and more, for FM radio players.

    Phase III countdown: ‘Overbidding will kill stations’

    By Robin Thomas

    FM radio listenership has more or less remained stagnant for a while since the completion of FM phase II. The soon to be launched FM phase III may have therefore brought some respite to FM stations across India. For some phase III is an opportunity to expand their listenership reach to newer cities and towns, yet for others it becomes an opportunity to further consolidate their position within a particular state/region. If Multiple Frequencies are allowed, it will introduce different genres of FM radio within the same city, thus encouraging new listeners to tune in.

    The drawback however would be the marginal FDI increase in radio to 26 percent from the earlier 20 percent. This marginal increase in FDI will probably discourage investors from taking the full plunge into the phase III bidding process. News is not available in the best of forms too, as FM stations are allowed to source news only from All India Radio.

     

    Mr Prashant Panday
    Mr. Harshad Jain
    Mr Harrish M. Bhatia
    Mr Rana Barua

    Despite all these developments, FM stations face a whole lot of other challenges which may have a direct or indirect effect on their phase III plans. The Music Royalty issue still remains unresolved, as a result of which FM stations, particularly in small towns, have to pay higher royalty. With expansion there would also be an increase in operation costs, and employee or talent management could be another challenge. MxMIndia spoke to few FM players to find out their views on the challenges for FM stations in phase III.

     

    Mr Prashant Panday, CEO, Radio Mirchi explained, “If people overbid in Phase III, they are finished. Radio is not like TV. One has to be extremely cost-conscious. One has to keep his head down while doing the business of radio. Phase III has e-auctions. There is a very good chance of bids going haywire. This is what each bidding broadcaster has to keep in mind.”

     

    Mr Harshad Jain, Business Head, Fever FM observed, “Phase III will bring with it a set of inevitable challenges like rising costs to set up new stations, and getting new audiences while the radio industry on the whole is still grappling with current costs and investments.”

     

    Mr Harrish M Bhatia, CEO, MY FM said, “The most important is the Royalty Issue; till the time it is completely resolved, it is quite difficult for the radio industry to grow efficiently. The absence of an acceptable radio measurement tool is another challenge. Content restriction is a big restraint for the industry as we are not allowed to provide self-generated news content. The challenges faced by the radio industry in the cities and towns other than the six metros are more or less the same as above.  To overcome these, the industry as a whole needs to work in tandem.”

     

    One of the possible challenges that FM stations can no longer remain immune from is the global economic climate. The uncertainty hit the world economy just before the FM phase III rollout, which may have some impact in the bidding process. “India as an economy is still expected to show healthy growth rates despite global sluggishness and we believe Radio will see greater volumes in a downturn too. The key issue is the ability to take up prices that will be difficult to manage in a downturn,” explained Mr Jain of Fever FM.

     

    According to Mr Bhatia, “The global showdown is more of metro phenomenon, hence it has not impacted the tier 2 and tier 3 cities. In fact, the radio business growth, even for existing players, is expected from non-metro cities.”

     

    In an earlier interaction with MxMIndia, Mr Rana Barua, COO Red FM had said, “I believe we should be taking complete cognizance of the fact that there is definitely a slowdown. The clients, advertisers, everybody are extremely, extremely careful about the money they are investing in any form of media. Taking things for granted and creating business plans for next two or three years seems passé now.”

     

    Three schools of thought emerged from this interaction, one which believes that the economic slowdown is a metro phenomenon. The second line of thinking is that the despite the global slowdown, the radio industry will continue to grow. And the other believes that the industry must admit the fact that there is a slowdown and hence the industry must take a cautious approach especially during the phase III bidding process.