The Resurgence of Radio in India: The Re-Entry of

Private Players

By: - Mohit Ranjan

Deepak Sharma
Sagir Alam
Priyam
Naveen Rijhwani
Ashutosh Singh
 History of Radio
• Radio was invented during the late 1890s
• Information and entertainment content started
only in the mid 1910s, first in the US and then in
European countries
• Advertising on the radio started first in the US in
1920
• The demand for commercial airtime increased
heavily by 1923
• Capability and immediacy of radio made it very
popular across the world by the late 1920s
 Radio in INDIA
• In India, radio broadcasting started in 1927 at Mumbai and Kolkata
with two privately owned transmission stations.
• In 1930, the government acquired these stations and started
operating them under the Indian Broadcasting Service
• The radio service also came to be referred to as 'Akashvani.2‘
• Vividh Bharati, AIR's main entertainment channel, was started in
the 1960s. Commercial broadcasting was first introduced on Indian
radio in 1967. In the mid-1970s, AIR started offering sponsored
programs. Radio's commercials started during the early 1980s on its
primary channel Vividh Bharati and were extended to other
channels by the mid-1980s
 Radio in INDIA(Contd.)
• AIR that broadcasted programs in 24 languages
(16 foreign and 8 Indian, languages).
• Program's
▫ Review of Indian press coverage
▫ News bulletins
▫ Talk shows on socio-economic,
▫ Cultural, historical
▫ Political subjects;
▫ And classical, folk and popular music
 Fm in INDIA
• The first FM station was started in Chennai. By the
1980s
• In 1993, the government allowed private players in
the FM sector by permitting them to take blocks
(i.e. time slots to offer their programming content)
• Major Players
▫ Times FM (of the media giant Bennett Coleman & Co)
▫ Radio Mid-Day (of the Midday Multimedia group).
 Introduction To Case
• The absence of a monitoring for radio programs
that could provide agencies with information to
approach clients also contributed to radio's
downfall. In 1993, the government allowed
private players in the FM sector by permitting
them to take blocks (i.e. time slots to offer their
programming content) on AIR, for FM
transmissions. The purpose of this move was to
earn revenues for AIR (by way of license fees)
and provide more variety for listeners.
 Introduction To Case(Contd.)
• By 1997-98, the private FM business in India had
grown to Rs 930 million.
• Private FM channels resulted in decreasing
revenues for AIR as these FM channels attracted
most of the ad revenues.
• In June 1998, Prasar Bharati3 stopped the
operations of private FM channels
• In July 1999, the government again decided to
privatize FM broadcasts and came out with a ten-
year license deal.
 Introduction To Case(Contd.)
• In 2000, the government called for bids for FM
licenses.
SWOT Analysis
Strengths Weakness
immense popularity High license fees
extensive reach fixed number of slots per city
easy accessibility lack of basic infrastructure facilities
Varieties of Programs More than 24 languages
Cheap Advertisements lack of creativity in radio
programming as compared to TV.
cost effectiveness
Cheap Instuments
 Opportunities Threats
Multilingual programs four to five years for the companies
just to break even.
Un-Tapped Rural Areas TV /Reality Shows
Costly Equipments Of World-Space
Costly TV Adds
good scripts and innovation in
programming
External Environment
• Govt. Policies
• Rural Areas
• High Cost bidding Prices
• Demand of Creativity
• Many Succesful Brands Advertising on Radio
 What's Radio Potential
• Low advertisement costs
• Extensive reach
• Targeting a small/niche audiences, radio worked
out to be much more beneficial
• More than 150 million radio
• as a source of entertainment.
• Using of advanced digital technologies and
superior programming
• More targeted programming.
Success Story
• Car Listeners'
• House Wives
• Late Night program
• Advertisements
• Scope In India
Conclusions