MAM

RAM outlines radio listening trends in 9 cities

Published

14 years ago

May 12, 2012

MUMBAI: Ahmedabad, Chennai and Hyderabad have emerged as the growth markets for the radio industry, according to the second round of ‘9 Indian Cities Listenership Sweeps‘ data provided by RAM, the radio measurement service of TAM.

The Southern metros have seen more than 30 per cent growth in listening thresholds while Ahmedabad has witnessed 15 per cent growth. Pune, Kanpur, Indore and Nagpur have remained at almost the same levels as the previous round.

The second sweeps data is for the period of February-April 2012.

According to RAM, the sweeps release will help the radio industry, including the broadcasters and media planning agencies, to assess the impact that radio is having on audiences in towns other than the major metros.

TAM CEO LV Krishnan said, “The second roll out is as per timelines committed by us to the industry. After the first sweeps in October last year, this second one shows interesting changes in radio consumption patterns. While in some markets, radio consumption base itself has seen an increase, in others granular trends like Out Of Home (OOH) listenership have seen an encouraging increase.”

RAM‘s second sweeps highlights changes in radio consumption behaviour not only across the nine cities but also in comparison to the first round of sweeps which was released in October 2011.

The RAM panel coverage was expanded to nine additional cities – Ahmedabad, Chennai, Hyderabad, Indore, Jaipur, Kanpur, Lucknow, Nagpur and Pune. Prior to that, RAM operated out of the four Indian metros – Bangalore, Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai.

According to RAM, average audience in morning day part has seen a surge in Ahmedabad, peaking at 9 am with a 70 per cent growth. This is largely due to a 10 per cent growth in cumulative reach. In fact, cumulative reach has grown across all the days, with Sunday leading the pack. While 95 per cent of the audience cumulative reach build up was achieved by afternoon earlier, now 95 per cent of the audience can be targeted by the morning day part alone (at a weekly level).

Time spent, however, has dropped marginally in Ahmedabad, according to RAM data.

Radio listeners in Chennai, in sharp contrast, have significantly increased their time spent, led by the morning day-part band.

The share of SEC C‘s listenership has grown from 37 per cent to 43 per cent, while cumulative reach levels have dropped across all the day parts.

The share of in-home listenership has grown from 76 per cent to 87 per cent. The audience build up has got spread through the day.

In Hyderabad, evening and night day parts have grown significantly while morning has witnessed a drop in listenership levels. The drop in morning day part is primarily due to drop in cumulative reach levels, while TSL (time spent listening) has grown. In fact, across the day parts, TSL has almost doubled across the day parts.

Another significant trend is that contribution from SEC A & B has increased.

There is a 6 per cent drop in share of in-home listening, reflected in the growth of listening share from car/travel/conveyance. According to RAM, equal and high threshold of listenership can be observed across weekdays and weekends. The evening and night day parts add significant amount of audiences to cumulative reach build up.

The other key findings from the six cities are as follows:

Nagpur:
1. The weekly listenership levels have remained at the same levels as the previous round
2. The daily cume reach has gone up, with Sunday being the maximum, but time spent levels are down across all the days.
3. Share of In-home listening grows from 82-87%

Jaipur:
1. Drop in listenership thresholds across the day
2. The same reflects in the cume reach levels across the day parts
3. Dominance of SEC DE in Jaipur‘s listenership contribution is normalized. Proportionate contribution from all SECs to listenership
4. Morning day part continues to be the one where listenership peaks, though at a lower threshold
5. Sunday emerges as the one with highest cume reach and time spent levels
6. The audience build up has got spread through the day. It takes up to afternoon day part to cover 95% of all audience.

Indore:
1. The listenership peaks have interchanged between mid morning and morning, morning peak emerging as the highest. Other day parts are more or less are at the same threshold
2. At a weekly level, morning day part emerges as the highest in cume reach and time spent.
3. Mid-morning day part saw a reduction cume reach levels.
4. TSL level growth in night day part
5. Share of In-home listening significantly drops from 94% to 71%. Maximum growth in Car share of listening (22%)
6. Saturday loses audiences as Sunday emerges as the destination of maximum listening
7. Faster cume reach build up across the day as 95% of the audiences are reached by the mid-morning day part.

Pune:
1. Similar listenership thresholds across the day parts
2. Mid-morning to night, there is a drop in cume reach levels, but across the day parts there is a growth in TSL levels
3. Contribution from different places of listening remains the same
4. Sunday emerges as the destination of highest listenership
5. Audience addition from afternoon grows in the current year

Lucknow:
1. Listenership thresholds drop across the day parts, while night primetime holds the thresholds
2. While there is cume reach growth in some of the day parts, there has been TSL drop across all of them
3. Share of listening from 35+ age group comes down
4. Contribution from in-home listening grows from 89%-93%
5. Cumulative audience on Sunday grow from 82% to 94%
6. Weekdays and weekends have similar thresholds of TSL

Kanpur:
1. Marginal changes in day part wise preferences
2. Growth in consumption share from SEC AB and 45+ age group
3. OOH share of listening grows from 23 to 29%, majority of the growth coming from car/travel
4. Sunday emerges as the clear leader in listening threshold

Brands

Netflix India names Rekha Rane director of films and series marketing

Streaming giant bets on a seasoned marketer who helped build Amazon and Netflix into household names

Published

1 week ago

February 9, 2026

indiantelevision.com Team

MUMBAI: Netflix has put a proven brand builder at the helm of its films and series marketing in India, naming Rekha Rane as director in a move that signals sharper focus on audience growth and cultural cut-through in one of its most hotly contested markets.

Rane steps into the role after seven years at Netflix, where she has quietly shaped how the platform sells stories to India. Her latest promotion, effective February 2026, crowns a run that spans brand, slate and product marketing across originals, licensed content and new verticals such as games.

A strategic marketing and communications professional with roughly 15 years’ experience, Rane has spent much of her career building technology-led consumer businesses and new categories, notably e-commerce and subscription video on demand. She was part of the early push that introduced Amazon.in, Prime Video and Netflix to Indian homes, then helped turn them into everyday brands.

At Netflix, she most recently served as head of brand and slate marketing for India from March 2024 to February 2026, leading teams across media and marketing for global and local content portfolios. Before that, as manager for original films and series marketing, she led IP creation and go-to-market strategy for titles including Guns and Gulaabs, Kaala Paani, The Railway Men* and The Great Indian Kapil Show, spanning both binge and weekly-release formats.

Her earlier Netflix roles covered product discovery and promotion in India and integrated campaign strategy to drive conversations around the content slate, product awareness and brand-equity metrics.

Before Netflix, Rane logged more than three years at Amazon in brand marketing roles in Bengaluru. There she handled national and regional campaigns for Amazon.in, worked on customer assistance programmes in growth geographies and contributed to the go-to-market strategy for the launch of Prime Video India.

Her career began well away from streaming. At Reliance Brands in Mumbai, she worked on retail marketing for Diesel and Superdry. A stint at Leo Burnett saw her work on primary research for P&G Tide, mapping Indian shoppers’ paths to purchase. Earlier still, at Orange in the United Kingdom, she rose from sales assistant to store manager, running a team and owning monthly P&L for a retail outlet.

The arc is telling. As global streamers fight for attention in a crowded Indian market, executives who understand both mass retail behaviour and digital habit-building are prized. Rane’s career sits at that intersection.

For Netflix, the bet is simple: in a market spoilt for choice, sharp marketing can still tilt the screen. And with Rane now leading the charge, the streamer is signalling it wants not just viewers, but fandom.

Brands

Orient Beverages pops the fizz with steady Q3 gains and rising profits

Kolkata-based beverage maker reports stronger revenues and profits for December quarter.

Published

1 week ago

February 9, 2026

indiantelevision.com Team

MUMBAI: A fizzy quarter with a steady aftertaste that’s how Orient Beverages Limited, the company that manufactures and distributes packaged drinking water under the brand name Bisleri closed the December 2025 period, as the Kolkata-based drinks maker reported improved revenues and a healthy rise in profits, signalling operational stability in a competitive beverage market.

For the quarter ended December 31, 2025, Orient Beverages posted standalone revenue from operations of Rs 39.98 crore, up from Rs 36.42 crore in the previous quarter and Rs 33.53 crore in the same quarter last year. Total income for the quarter stood at Rs 42.24 crore, reflecting consistent demand and stable pricing across its beverage portfolio.

Profit before tax for the quarter came in at Rs 3.47 crore, a sharp improvement from Rs 1.31 crore in the September quarter and Rs 0.39 crore a year ago. After accounting for tax expenses of Rs 0.79 crore, the company reported a net profit of Rs 2.68 crore, nearly three times the Rs 0.99 crore recorded in the preceding quarter.

On a nine-month basis, the momentum remained intact. Revenue from operations for the period ended December 31, 2025 rose to Rs 117.66 crore, compared with Rs 106.95 crore in the corresponding period last year. Net profit for the nine months climbed to Rs 5.51 crore, more than double the Rs 2.18 crore reported in the same period of the previous financial year.

The consolidated numbers told a similar story. For the December quarter, consolidated revenue from operations stood at Rs 45.06 crore, while profit after tax came in at Rs 2.06 crore. For the nine-month period, consolidated revenue touched Rs 133.57 crore, with net profit of Rs 4.49 crore, underscoring the group’s improving profitability trajectory.

Operating expenses remained largely controlled, with cost of materials, employee benefits and other expenses broadly aligned with revenue growth. The company continued to operate within a single reportable segment beverages simplifying its cost structure and reporting framework.

The unaudited financial results were reviewed by the Audit Committee and approved by the Board of Directors at its meeting held on 7 February 2026. Statutory auditors carried out a limited review and reported no material misstatements in the results.

In a market where margins are often squeezed by input costs and competition, Orient Beverages’ latest numbers suggest the company has found a reliable rhythm not explosive, but steady enough to keep the fizz alive.

MAM

Washington Post CEO exits abruptly after newsroom cuts spark backlash

Leadership change follows layoffs, protests and a bruising battle over trust.

Published

1 week ago

February 9, 2026

indiantelevision.com Team

MUMBAI: When the presses are rolling but patience runs out, even the editor’s chair isn’t safe. The Washington Post announced on Saturday that its chief executive and publisher Will Lewis is stepping down with immediate effect, bringing a sudden end to a turbulent two-year tenure marked by financial strain, newsroom unrest and public backlash.

Lewis’s exit comes just days after the Bezos-owned newspaper announced sweeping job cuts that triggered protests outside its Washington headquarters and a wave of anger from readers and staff. While newspapers across the US are grappling with shrinking revenues and digital disruption, Lewis’s leadership had increasingly come under fire for how those pressures were handled.

The Post confirmed that Jeff D’Onofrio, a former Tumblr CEO who joined the organisation last year as chief financial officer, has taken over as CEO and publisher, effective immediately. In an email to staff, later shared by reporters on social media, Lewis said it was “the right time for me to step aside.”

The leadership change follows the announcement of large-scale redundancies earlier this week. While the Post did not officially confirm numbers, The New York Times reported that around 300 of the paper’s roughly 800 journalists were laid off. Entire teams were dismantled, including the Post’s Middle East bureau and its Kyiv-based correspondent covering the war in Ukraine.

Sports, graphics and local reporting were sharply reduced, and the paper’s daily podcast, Post Reports, was suspended. On Thursday, hundreds of journalists and supporters gathered outside the Post’s downtown office in protest, calling the cuts a blow to public-interest journalism.

Former executive editor Marty Baron described the moment as “among the darkest days in the history of one of the world’s greatest news organisations.”

Lewis defended his record in his farewell note, saying “difficult decisions” were taken to secure the paper’s long-term future and protect its ability to publish “high-quality nonpartisan news”. But his tenure coincided with growing scrutiny of editorial independence at the Post.

Owner Jeff Bezos faced criticism for reining in the paper’s traditionally liberal editorial page and blocking an endorsement of Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris ahead of the 2024 US election. The move was widely seen as breaking the long-standing firewall between ownership and editorial decision-making.

According to a Wall Street Journal report, around 250,000 digital subscribers cancelled their subscriptions after the paper declined to endorse Harris. The Post reportedly lost about $100 million in 2024 as advertising and subscription revenues slid.

While the wider newspaper industry continues to battle declining print advertising and the pull of social media, some national titles have stabilised. Rivals such as The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times have managed to build sustainable digital businesses, a turnaround that has so far eluded the Post despite its billionaire backing.

As Jeff D’Onofrio steps into the role, the challenge is stark, restore confidence inside the newsroom, win back readers who walked away, and prove that one of America’s most storied newspapers can still find its footing in a brutally competitive media landscape.