MxMIndia

Tag: Vineet Singh Hukmani

  • Uday Benegal, Vicky Ratnanai, Dalip Tahil, Shriya Saran, Rehan Poncha, Mickey Mehta and Meera Sanyal join Host Hrishi K in a live dialogue to launch campaign

    94.3 Radio One launches new CSR campaign

    By A Correspondent

     

    Teejay Sidhu, Shriya Saran, Vicky Ratnani, Mickey Mehta, Rehan Poncha, Meera Sanyal, Dalip Tahil, Uday Benegal and Hrishi K

    94.3 Radio One Mumbai has launched a CSR initiative titled – Mumbai at its best, a campaign that urges city folk to take a breather from the pressures of daily city life, and make time for what truly brings fulfillment.

     

    The CSR campaign urges Mumbaikars to step back, pause, breathe, and relook at various passions they might want to pursue, that add meaning and purpose to their lives, but get lost in the fast pace and pressure of urban existence.

     

    Vineet Singh Hukmani, Managing Director, 94.3, Radio One said, “In this world where people often get caught up in a whirlwind of stress, health issues, not finding time for themselves, their families, financial stability etc. 94.3 Radio ONE is urging people to give themselves some space and consider the many options that exist in today’s world – options in career, options in passions that will help them breathe and live life at its best.”

     

    Through this campaign, the station hopes to draw young Mumbaikars just beginning on their careers, into the recognition that they have two options – to make a career of something they are passionate about or to use the resources generated from their job/business to help fulfill their dreams. It encourages listeners to not give up on the things they love and make space for this in their lives so they are more meaningful. For city folk with successful careers and hectic lives, the station’s unique campaign urges them to look at their lives and make space for their dreams, to take time out to do the things they always wanted to do but never had the chance to do it.

     

    The station plans to deliver on its promise by turning into listeners themselves, and inviting experts from the fields of health, food, music, acting, sport, politics, business and more to be hosted as role models on air. These role models would be known personalities/people from all walks of life and will answer questions from listeners based on their own inspiring example of doing this and sharing their perspective and advice on how a listener might do so in his or her life. Actor Shriya Saran and Dalip Tahil, rock musician Uday Benegal, business woman – politician Meera Sanyal, Olympian and Arjuna Awardee Rehan Poncha, celebrity chef – Vicky Ratnani will join host Hrishi K in a live conversation to kick off this campaign for the radio station.

     

  • The Next Radio Ltd and BBC Worldwide jv which runs seven differentiated formats in the metros has upped ad rates by 20 percent wef Feb 1

    94.3 Radio One hikes ad rates by 20%

    By A Correspondent

     

    Radio One, the joint venture between Next Radio Ltd and BBC Worldwide, which runs 7 differentiated formats in the metros has increased its advertising rates by 20 percent across markets effective February 1, 2014.

     

    Said Vineet Singh Hukmani, MD and CEO Radio One: “In the last two years, our ‘product-first’ approach has ensured unparalled engagement of our listeners and therefore huge value to our advertisers. Complementing on-air content with simulcast digital conversations with the same TG does cost us. However, advertisers gain most as a result of this continuous upgradation as they can get access to supremely engaged audiences only on Radio One.”

     

    Radio One was the first station to begin ‘Online rebroadcast’ of its international Delhi and Mumbai stations. “In the last year we have begun to offer noticeable engagement in the online streaming audience and continuous up gradation of this service is the need of the hour and we are willing to make this investment for our advertisers’  added Vineet.

     

    Radio One runs international stations in Delhi and Mumbai, both of which have an online ‘rebroadcast’. The format for Bengaluru and Pune is upmarket Bollywood, whereas Ahmedabad and Kolkata are Hindi retro. Chennai, on the other hand, is a 100% request station. “We are happy that in Q3, all our seven stations were EBIDTA positive and this is the best proof of our strategy based on continuous product up-gradation,” added Mr Hukmani.

     

  • Radio One begins 'webcast' of its existing international radio stations on the internet

    Radio One takes Delhi & Mumbai international music stations online

    By A Correspondent

     

    The Mumbai and Delhi radio stations of 94.3 Radio One are now available online on www.radioone.in.The stream is a ‘re-broadcast’ of the existing terrestrial radio stations which have international music aired.

     

    With this initiative, Radio One is the first station in India to begin a ‘webcast’ of its existing international radio stations on the internet for a pan-Indian audience, notes a communique.  While the streams can be accessed across the internet, the spoken content will retain the distrinctive Mumbai and Delhi flavour.

     

    To launch the webcast, Radio One has created a promotional campaign on air and social media called #LetsGoOnline.  The campaign starts with a new song created in-house by the Radio One team that recognizes that humans were ‘born to be online’.  Social media is being used for a contest that encourages listeners to make their own video for the song.  A demo video of the song ‘Lets go Online’ can be seen at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Og0WxwEozTA&feature=youtu.be

     

    The song can be downloaded free from http://snd.sc/1cYJ6bu

     

    Said Vineet Singh Hukmani, MD & CEO Radio One: ‘This is a milestone change and we thank music companies like Universal Music, Sony Music, Virgin Music, and others for recognizing that webcasting of existing terrestrial radio feeds in India presents a new possible opportunity with Phase 3 around the corner combined with 4G and the fast improving broadband space… Though revenue growth from this alone will take time to scale up, it allows all of us an exciting opportunity at an affordable cost.”

     

    Shyju Varkey, National Marketing Head, Radio One added: “Our well profiled audience across India have been requesting an international station since we launched 18 months ago in Delhi and Mumbai. Listeners in these two cities too have been demanding their favorite radio station be heard online. A cumulative reach of 9 million people in Delhi and Mumbai alone through FM Radio gave us the confidence to go online and expand this base of higher net-worth educated audiences pan-India.”

     

    A special debate on Radio One and Twitter will encourage listeners to converse about ‘why they love being online”. The station will pay rich tribute to brands large and small that have both globally and locally gone online to create a better and convenient world for people. For this the station has roped in Gul Panag who maintains a very strong online presence.

     

  • The foreign investment limit for FM radio has been enhanced to 26% from the earlier 20%. This change ensures conformity of the foreign investment limit in this sector with other similar activities in the Information & Broadcasting sector. Are the players satisfied with the increase?

    FDI’s 26% allowance: Are radio players happy?

    By Shubhangi Mehta

     

    The government has enhanced the foreign investment limit for FM radio to 26 percent from the earlier 20 percent.

     

    This change ensures conformity of the foreign investment limit with other similar activities in the Information and Broadcasting sector.

     

    Rana Barua

    Is the increase adequate or was there more that was expected?

    Mr Rana Barua, Chief Operating Officer at RED 93.5FM, put forth his views by stating,” it’s a positive sign for sure for the industry .

    Whether Red Fm is looking at upping the Astro stake, Mr Barua said, “We will try and look at that but this will all depend on internal decisions hence there is not much to be said on this as of now”.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    “It is a welcome change but we will be able to gauge its real value closer to the bidding date of phase3 when migration policy is clear.  While radio in india is possibly one of the highest CAGR media in the world, the global economic situation needs to be accounted for in order to ascertain foreign investment’ interest,” said Mr Vineet Singh Hukmani, MD, Radio One.

     

    Apurva Purohit

     

     

    On this Ms Apurva Purohit, CEO, Radio City 91.1 FM said,”The increase in FDI in Radio sector from 20 to 26 percent is not really going to make any dramatic impact on the industry. It is too less and even now not on par with other media like TV or DTH.”

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Prashant Panday

     

    Mr Prashant Panday,CEO,Radio

    Mirchi, remarked, “A higher FDI limit will help FIIs to trade more in radio stocks that are listed. Till now, the limit was 20 percent and when FIIs approached that number, they had to take special permission from RBI to buy more. Now that limit has been raised to 26 percent and that will help increase volumes on listed radio stocks.”

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Will this encourage more foreign players to invest in the market?

    On this Mr Panday said,” Whether it will have any impact on strategic investments from foreign companies in India or not remains to be seen. On the one hand, the radio sector in India offers tremendous growth opportunities. But on the other hand, the sector’s profitability has been in question for much of the last five years. Even going forward, if bidding in Phase-3 becomes unreasonable, profitability could be in serious jeopardy. Further, foreign ncompanies are themselves operating under uncertain conditions in their own markets. Whether they will be willing to invest in India at this point in time remains to be seen.Also, given the condition of the money markets in India right now, it is unlikely that fund raising will be very easy. Given all of this, I think FDI investments into the radio sector in India will be limited.

     

    Mr Barua on the same said,” I’m still not sure if the rise will encourage new players to enter the market. The rise is there but when it comes to analysing it, I have always encouraged a higher percentage. In my opinion this rise is not high enough and leaves us with a doubt if it will actually egg on more foreign players”.