ITV

Tag: Radio Today

  • Radio Today likely to sign deal with Malaysia’s Measat

    Radio Today likely to sign deal with Malaysia’s Measat

    MUMBAI: With the Indian government having allowed foreign investment in FM radio ventures, the sector has started singing deals.

    Radio FM operator Radio Today, part of the Aroon Purie-controlled The India Today Group (ITG), is poised to ink an equity stake agreement with Measat Broadcast Network Systems, Malaysia’s digital multi-channel satellite DTH broadcaster and supplier of broadcast-related support services.

    A senior executive of ITG while confirming that talks with Measat are in an advanced stage, however, said that a formal agreement “has not been signed yet. But, he added, it could happen over the next few days.”

    If the deal is concluded, it will become the second instance where a foreign player will be picking up stake in an Indian FM radio operator after the government permitted foreign investment up to 20 per cent in this sector

    BBC’s proposal to acquire up to 20 per cent stake in Radio Mid-Day, which operates a station in Mumbai, for Rs 118.7 million has got the finance ministry clearance.

    Astro All Asia Network, the holding company of Measat, operates eight FM terrestrial radio stations in Malaysia, including the top-ranking stations for all the key Malay, Chinese, Indian and English vernacular demographics.

    These stations cumulatively reach more than 10 million listeners a week or 62 per cent of all radio listeners, and command over 79 per cent of the radio industry’s advertising expenditure.

    How much money can Radio Today, operating FM radio stations in three cities under the Red FM brand name, mop up through such an equity sale as and when it comes through?

    It will depend on the valuation of the Indian company, which is still a small part of the multi-million dollar ITG and considered a younger sibling of TV Today Network that is a listed company.

    Radio Today, having stations in Delhi and Mumbai, is also among the first list of 70 applicant companies that have qualified for financial bids for the second phase of FM radio broadcasting in India covering 90 cities and over 300 frequencies.

    Measat has been scouting the Indian market for a radio foothold from the time Sushma Swaraj was the information and broadcasting minister in the early part of this decade.

    While in the mid-1990s Measat had a pact with pubcaster Doordarshan for a DTH service (that never got off the ground), in 2004 December, Astro entered into a $ 25 million agreement with Sun Network, which also runs some FM radio stations in India, for the establishment of a joint venture to originate, aggregate and distribute television programming and channels for a global audience.

    Interestingly, the Malaysian media group, according to information available, presently provides studio infrastructure and airtime sales and programming services for two radio stations in Kolkata.

  • Radio Today to launch with 24 hour live programming

    Radio Today to launch with 24 hour live programming

    The fourth player in the private radio field in Mumbai, Radio Today 93.5, has fixed its launch date for somewhere in the third week of May. This will be the first FM station in Mumbai to offer 24 hours of live programming.

    The late start is attributed to a comprehensive programming schedule that will cater to the needs of the various segments of the target audience. “We will be offering programmes that would be unique and interesting to the listeners,” says Aaj Tak CEO G Krishnan, who will also head the radio channels in Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata.

    Radio Today, says Krishnan, has appointed Grey Worldwide for its creatives and as its agency of record (AOR). In Mumbai, the company’s transmission tower is located in central Mumbai. Says Krishnan, “As per government regulations we are not allowed to present news, but we can still share information like traffic, weather and city specific event updates, etc. We will be offering 24 hours of programming, all of which would be live.”

    While Radio Mirchi, Win and Go (from the Midday stable) are concentrating on playing hit albums during most of the time they are on air, Radio Today could possibly take a different route. “Looking at it from the point of view of the target audience, a radio station needs to have a personality of its own and has to relate to a specific set of audience. Hence the programming has to cater to that specific target group. We are coming up with a number of innovative programming to cater to all segments,” he says.

  • Private FM players racing to launch in Mumbai by April-end

    Private FM players racing to launch in Mumbai by April-end

    Get set for the war of the FM airwaves in Mumbai.

    As the deadline of 29 April draws near, all the players in the FM fray are scrambling to launch the city’s first private radio stations. Radio Today (from the Living Media group), Radio Mirchi (offspring of the Times of India Group) and Radio Mid Day (from the Mumbai eveninger’s stable) all expect to be up and beaming on or around that date.

    Radio Today, headed by G Krishnan (also CEO of top Hindi television news channel Aaj Tak) will take off by 29 April, official sources say. Nischint Chawla, till recently CEO of Radio Mid Day, is the COO.

    Radio Mirchi, which has already spiced up the airwaves in Indore and Ahmedabad, is racing against time for a simultaneous launch in Mumbai and Pune by 1 May, says AP Parigi, managing director Entertainment Network, the Times Group company behind Radio Mirchi. Queried as to where the FM station had located its transmission tower, Parigi mentioned two sites – one at Sterling Buildings in Tardeo in central Mumbai and another in suburban Malad.

    According to the information available, the first to get off the blocks in Mumbai may well be Radio Mid Day – likely to launch between 23 and 25 April.

    RADIO CITY HITS A ROADBLOCK:
    Radio City, the ambitious FM project from the Star stable, however, has come up against an unexpected hurdle. The company has still to get its tower and transmitter site clearance from the government. Music Broadcast Private Limited (MBPL), the company promoting Radio City, already has space earmarked for the radio tower atop the Shripati building at Nana Chowk, central Mumbai, but in the absence of government all clear, is caught in a bind. Says Sumantra Dutta, head of Star’s FM operations: “We are very keen to launch but only if the government gives us clearance on the tower and the transmitter site. We, after all, launched India’s first private FM station (in Bangalore on 3 July 2001) and were the first to demonstrate the true potential of FM in India.”

    Till date, FM operations have taken off in four centres – Radio City in Bangalore and Lucknow and Radio Mirchi in Indore and Ahmedabad.

    Mumbai will, however, witness the first real case where multiple players will be fighting it out for the listener’s ear. Apart from Radio Mirchi, Radio Today, Radio Mid Day and Radio City, there is also Millennium Broadcast. It is not clear at this stage how far it has gone with its launch plans but it needs noting that Millennium Broadcast has experience behind it. It has already tasted a measure of FM success in Sri Lanka.

    In the metro cities of Delhi, Chennai and Kolkata, private players have some more time to start operations (August 29, 2002) and unlike in Mumbai they will be using All India Radio towers for broadcast. In Mumbai, where neither DD nor AIR have towers, private players have been exempted from the condition of co-location for a period of two years and have been allowed to make interim individual arrangements. Operators in Mumbai have till 29 February to start broadcast operations. After that, they will be required to start paying license fees, whether services start or not.

    One thing that the Private FM players will not be allowed to do, which will certainly restrict growth prospects, is broadcast news and current affairs programmes.