MUMBAI: As radio grows to newer heights this year with innovations in content and the oncoming Phase III auctions signaling expansion, broadcasters are now laying heavy focus on profits through content with quality ruling over quantity.
Radio Mirchi as a network has been innovating a lot in programming and this in turn has helped the network grow by 12 per cent till Q3 during the year, compared to the previous year’s three quarters.
Speaking with Radioandmusic.com, Radio Mirchi CEO Prashant Panday said, “In general, radio has been doing better than TV, print and outdoors. There has been an upturn in sentiments since Q3 last year.”
Related Post
The performance of radio has also largely increased due to the fact that more focus is now being put on content and doing something unique to engage with listeners each time. Earlier, the peak growth months were generally the festive months between September to March where radio grew exponentially. This was attributed to the fact that there was no dearth of content with programming revolving around festivals and various on-ground and on-air activities also being festival specific.
While the two quarters between October-December and January-March witness good growth, the first quarter between April-June is generally smaller in terms of growth due to various reasons including the performance of the advertising industry on the medium.
“Usually the April-June quarter is smaller than the October-December and January-March quarters by about 15 per cent and 20 per cent respectively. It is usually the smallest quarter of the year,” he added.
Radio Mirchi amongst its wide network witnesses a good first quarter growth in its Delhi station due to a lot of advertisements and activities surrounding the soft drink companies and summer-specific companies being located in the vicinity.
However, the momentum of radio is not broken with the slowdown as a lot of fresh content is still churned out for the masses. Infact, the content is stated to typically increase in Q1 because the ad inventory pressure is lesser in this quarter.
Panday highlighted, “Typically, once IPL gets over, a lot of new music breaks and we do a lot of activities around that. When IPL is on, a lot of the programming and contests are initiated around it.”
Being one of the most popular sporting events, the Indian Premier League (IPL) is the cynosure of all eyes and media vehicles during the Q1 months of April and May. Most media platforms including radio broadcasters bring in the cricket frenzy in their programming and plan several contests and activations amongst others, in a bid to maintain the audience stickiness.
Once the tournament culminates in May, there is again availability of content for them in terms of music premiers of the new movie releases in the offing. But inspite of that, revenues suffer a minor hit as advertising spends are low in the quarter.
“Programming works round the clock, round the year. ENIL does a lot of activation around the year. But typically Q1 is relatively lighter on activations also because in general, client spends are lesser in this period,” he stated.
Moreover with the upcoming Phase III auctions, the number of frequencies that will be made available will increase. This in turn will help innovations and drive content growth as most broadcasters are now aiming to establish differentiated stations in several towns. As a result, all eyes are now on the government and the bidding process with an underlying focus on small towns. While other players are busy forming expansion strategies, Mirchi is not far behind with its plans as well.
“We will bid aggressively, but will always keep an eye on profitability. We are not interested in being the ‘biggest’ network in terms of size; we only want to be the biggest in terms of revenues and profits,” revealed Panday.
