*The Digital Radio Industry in 2010
Finally after being a gleam in the eyes of intrepid digital pioneers and technology whizz kids for many years, there is a palpable vibration in the media world that digital has finally arrived!
You can sense it in the increasing references to it by the media overlords, you can see it in the construct of the pitches being made to clients that are increasingly being led by the digital media team and you can finally feel it when clients actually are keeping aside increasingly substantial moneys to be invested in digital media.
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As early pioneers and firm believers in trying out everything new, we ventured in this space around 3 years ago with PlanetRadiocity.com, a music portal and networking site for music lovers of all genres. Today, the portal gets 11 million page views monthly.
It was in keeping with a culture we have encouraged in Radio City all along, that we will be innovators of anything to do with music and radio. The first time anything happens in these spaces it has to be on Radio City! So from being the first FM station to be launched in the country to doing practically everything that has happened on radio first on Radio City it was a natural progression when we pioneered the space with the advent of our Web Radio.
With PlanetRadiocity.com we now have a music portal catering to the needs of music lovers while with India’s first multi genre Web Radio; listeners have a wealth of choice in the music they can listen to the entire day. A piece, that is unfortunately missing in terrestrial radio today due to regulatory constraints. No wonder in a short duration our Web Radio is reaching an enormous listenership of 1.4 million listeners even before completing a year making us the tenth largest across all networks in the country and no geographical boundaries.
Our web radio airs all genres of music — Sufi, ghazal, hip hop, rock, Indi pop, Bollywood etc. It supplements our Radio City listenership, which is drive time. 10 am to 4 pm are the peak hours for our web radio. The programming goes far beyond music with some great RJs, some outstanding content and interesting chat shows with marquee names. With an ability to cover a larger gamut of information and entertainment the Web radio has nuanced programming not available otherwise.
The year saw us conduct various B2B and B2C activities. We started with Office Jockey – a unique RJ Hunt by offering the office going population a chance to showcase their talents and be an â€?Office Jockey.’ Selected Office Jockeys got to host their exclusive show on PlanetRadiocity’s web radio. The show got people an opportunity to showcase his or her office culture, people and lingo. Through â€?Office Jockey’, we engaged with them at a personal level.
We also launched our exclusive Facebook RJ hunt through which we engaged and involved our listeners and fans in choosing their own RJ to deliver the daily dose of entertainment and music which we offer. Another feather in the cap ,as we received 1000 entries within the first week itself.
PlanetRadiocity.com also hit a number of milestones throughout the year with its average page views increasing by a whopping 400%. Additionally, our alliances with Yahoo, Sify, Zapak, Bharatstudent and Indyarocks have bolstered our offering by acting as catalysts taking our reach beyond the realms of our own site. Digital media’s ability to engage personally, 24×7 and the relentless innovative thinking that drives the business is unmatched by any other media.
With internet usage attaining both critical mass and depth, this year will certainly see everyone capitalizing on this growing usage in India. Integrated planning and an intelligent approach to new media is the way forward and finally the path is clear for everyone to see and benefit from. But in all this brouhaha we must remember to thank the pioneers who diligently and passionately have been building and evangelizing this medium and have made the road easier for the rest to follow.
