MUMBAI: Digital is viewed as the future of private FM radio for stations to expand and introduce innovative content. Radiowalla.in is reaching out to private FM players through ‘Radio As A Service’ (RaaS) to strengthen their presence on the web.
With the association, FM stations can go ‘online’ with their proprietary programmes music and non-music content and increase their reach into the digital audience as well.
The radio stations can operate their online service on the radiowalla.in platform under their own brand powered by radiowalla.in. The service will give their brand access to promote their online presence with iOs and android apps. This is a cutting edge and collaborative effort with the FM operators.
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Speaking with Radioandmusic.com Radiowalla Network CEO and co-founder Anil Srivatsa says, “We have created this platform to avail radio services online and promote their brands quicker, faster and cheaper. As we have made the investment for radio stations, they just have to put their content here. We are in talks with few players currently. We have already experimented with 34 radio stations for six and seven months.”
“FM station is going to be the hero here and we are going to power them as we stand behind them,” says Srivatsa. We do not compete with the FM world but can be a great compliment to their business. We can get them up and running faster, cheaper and also customize their needs to keep each FM channel unique with technology and content,” he adds.
Operators blame regulations and high license costs for the online initiatives remaining a non-starter. “Regional players who are small-time players will understand the value of our initiative much strongly compared to big players who will believe in investing and having their own services,” highlights Srivatsa.
He further adds, “We don’t focus on regional alone but national players as well. For us radio is the priority, it doesn’t matter its regional or national.”
In terms of revenue, Srivatsa says, “Revenue generation will be driven by the FM stations, there will be a revenue share with us -cash or air-time space as barter. We have no standard price card set.”
The GOPA agreement that all FM broadcasters have signed, prohibits them to rebroadcast the FM signals on-line but surely allows them to broadcast varied content as there is no rigid law in that regard. The FM broadcasters can leverage additional content not transmitting on the FM frequencies and expand their offering to complement their on-air product with an on-line presence powered by Radiowalla. This will not only assist the private players to tap audiences outside their frequencies but will also provide the different content to audience. This initiative can be seen as a push among the radio players to strengthen their digital hold.
