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Radio One, two, three…eight!
Radio One, two, three…eight!
Delhi now has 8 FM stations. 5 of these sound like they were clones of each other.
Three new stations have launched in Delhi, in quick succession. Hit 95 that came a couple of months ago, New Big 92.7 from Adlabs and Radio One 94.3 were launched last week. My two bits:
Radio Mirchi
Which has been the undoubted leader, for long, has seen a few things change for it recently – star RJ Nitin, moved to Red FM a couple of months ago (he still doesn’t sound like he’s settled though. Have people actually switched to Red FM to listen to his morning slot would be difficult to say at this moment but a loss for Mirchi nonetheless.
In the short term, the new launches will impact Mirchi most – particularly New Big 92.7 (more about that ahead)
Radio City
Status quo on programming – nothing new after they introduced Mehak in the morning slot and Life ki Dhun, a show with Sonu Nigam sometime ago.
Red FM
Significant gains in the last one year (but):
Had been losing out to Mirchi and Radio City on advertising as: The ‘listnership’ surveys conducted so far have really taken into account ‘brand recall’ and not really actual listernership.
And Mirchi had significantly higher recall, as did City. Red suffered on share of advertising coming to it.
However, has got Nitin now (quite a coup), but unless it quickly associates his presence with the brand, an average listener may still associate him with Mirchi and RED may actually ‘contribute’ to Mirchi’s recall. Tricky :)
Has added ‘Superhits’ to its name in a loose manner – Superhits Red FM 93.5. Great move. Will it bind it tighter, we will see.
Has benefited from these and many other new initiatives (much more advertising support and general buzz), but remains number 3 and now there’s new competition to battle.
AIR FM Rainbow
My favourite – varied programming, ranging from music in several genres – western, jazz, western classical, oldies et al, to interesting talks and stuff. Lovely voices, who come prepared (even if sometimes read from a script) and are a delight to listen to. However, not commercially driven.
AIR FM Gold
Infotainment and India -news, analysis, talks, Indian music – film, classical, folk, carnatic etc. – not commercially driven again but channel for the masses – takes feed from AIR I think.
The new players
New Big 92.7
Disappointing launch, I must confess. Some very desperate sounding fillers – one with a duplicate? Amitabh voice playing a taxi driver, and other similar stuff. Nothing new in terms of programming, though my ears popped up at the mention of ‘Live coverage’ of the upcoming Champions Trophy cricket. Not so much about cricket – I met a top sport journalist friend of mine yesterday and he said that its a great idea. Red too has signed up one of our most flamboyant ex-cricketers – one of my favourites – speaks very well too.
I personally think the opportunity is about ‘LIVE’ – live concerts and others. Let’s see who does it first.
However, given that they have Abhishek and that the so called ‘listenership’ surveys actually work on brand recall, it is likely to gain in aided recall and that would impact the ad pie.
Also it is an ADAG company after all – they will spend.
Radio One 94.3
Same as New Big, minus Abhishek and ADAG money. Still early days, let’s see what they do.
Hit 95
Did they start as Hits 95 or I made a mistake? Anyway, the only private channel that at least sounds different from the rest, even though programming is limited to just music. Some advertising trickling in. SMS your request and they play your song – seems like a day long proposition, unlike specific time slots at which the other stations take requests. I find this nice.
To sum it up – to me none of the private channels even seem interested in differential programming; everyone seems to addressing the lowest common denominator. Song after song, peppered with inane chatter – what about engaging the audience?Your favourite radio channel! – Take the poll here: (Closed)
Originally posted on my blogVerbum.
Disclaimer: Views of authors are personal and do not represent the views of Blogworks, or any of its clients.
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