Experts’ predictions
2015 ended on a good note and the industry expects highly from 2016. According to Ashwin Padmanabhan, COO, Reliance Broadcast Network, radio industry has been estimated to have grown at about 17 per cent in 2015 and it is expected to grow several notches up in 2016.
Advertisements played a key role in the growth of the industry. In past 2 years radio advertising received a fillip from increased government and political spending including the elections in 2014 and emergence of e-commerce as a major advertiser.
Nisha Naryanan, COO, Red FM believes that radio will be more visible and widely used.
“In 2016 you will not see radio as only on air media but a full package of 3600 offering – be it ATL, BTL or digital. One can expect to see radio players reaching to audience using activations, concerts and events and digital offering. All this will naturally benefit the advertisers also as they will get multiple complementing platforms to offer robust media reach”, predicted Narayanan.
With the implementation of Phase III down the line, there is no doubt that in terms of reach, the private FM radio will reach out to far many more listeners.
Likewise, Harrish Bhatia, CEO, My FM also has high expectations from 2016. As per the Bhatia’s prediction radio will emerge much stronger and better in 2016.
Radio on internet
Increasing penetration of smart phones and falling costs of broadband connectivity, the internet radio is becoming more and more entrenched and opens up huge opportunities of growth. FM radio players are coming out with their online radio stations in order to offer various kinds of music and other content to the audience.
“Of course as Industry we should be ready to see fierce competition with each other – and with other mediums also. Digital media will emerge as biggest challenge with 4G launch and it may impact music space – however as Radio is not just about music; it’s also about content and variety plus free to use on the go unlike data that costs for downloads”, expressed Narayanan.
Also, digital as a medium allows companies to launch several new and different types of radio formats, which would help them to create niche content.
Apart from this, radio has been part of the media plan’s of several e-commerce players. Padmanabhan informed that with flourishing e-commerce business, year 2015 has witnessed e-commerce companies as one of the highest spenders on radio.
Predicting the growth of radio industry in 2016, Padmanabhan said, “The trend will continue in year 2016 also as the e-commerce players beef up their operations to reach out to consumers in small towns, already for many players close to 40 per cent of their sales originate outside of the top 12 cities. Radio becomes an extremely efficient medium for communication with its mass localized reach.”
Government & radio
After a long wait, phase III is now on track and PM himself leverages this medium through his show Mann kiBaat delivering direct message to the masses.
“Like Mr.Modi has used and leveraged the medium to do his Mann kiBaat and reach out to people of this country, other state governments and marketing heads of various companies should realise the potential of the medium, else they might lose big time”, expressed Bhatia.
However, Bhatia believes that, government needs to set up Copy Right Board to resolve the music royalty issue and also should look into revising DAVP rates;
Phase III E-auctions
Implementation of Phase III in radio industry had been the most common prediction till the last year. However, the commencement of the first batch of the e-auctions in 2015 changed everything. Most players are now busy in their expansion plans.
There are 242 FM radio channels at present in India serving across 86 cities. Phase III extended FM radio reach to about 227 new cities, in addition to the present 86 cities, with a total of 839 new FM radio Channels in 294 cities.
With a bigger and better industry all set, radio can indeed expect to receive its fair share this year.
