Is it petrol or is that Gold that they are dispensing at the
Gas stations, well those days are back when its easy to comprehend why Oil was ever called Black Gold. Those theories seem no longer misplaced
which describe why Middle east had to bear one of the biggest war of recent
times. Thankfully I didn’t fall for Petrol car when I had to go for a new car
few days back and I feel so relieved even though I know Diesel Price is due to
be revised soon.
What has been the newest around radio, well for the first
time since IPL started, Times Entertainment has tied up with Gold FM
for the running commentary of IPL Finals and Semi Finals matches. It may be
recalled that a consortium of Times Internet Ltd and Nimbus Communication Ltd
acquired IPL global Internet, mobile and audio rights, along with
television rights in specific territories outside India for four years on a
successful bid of Rs 261.6 crore.
The other big news was around a big ask by the radio
industry, settlement on the Copyright Bill. There has been too much arm
twisting by the Music companies of late when it comes to what, when and how
often one can play the music released by them. With the Copyright Act(Amendment)
Bill 2012 now passed by the Parliament, it’s clear that the song writers,
artists and performers can claim royalty for their creations. It declares
authors as the owners of the copyright which cannot be assigned to the
producers (read music companies) and therefore Broadcasters need to pay royalty
to the owners of the copyright each time a work of art is broadcast(Read
music). Another point to note especially
keeping Hyderabad music scene in mind, one is banned from bringing out cover
versions for 5 years from the first recording of the original creation. This
now means if you are a band who does cover versions you are much safer to bring
out a cover version of songs which are at least 5 years old. Though the rate of
royalty percentage is still under discussion but the way I see is that, cover
versions may attract lower royalty percentage and therefore there is a risk,
that most stations start playing more cover versions. This also means, that
fresh songs come on radio much faster as radio stations can directly pay the
artists rather than taking permission from the music companies.
Lets quickly come to the RAM news, well for the second time
RAM has released what they call the sweeps for the 9 cities. Remember RAM was
first started off with Delhi, Bangalore and Mumbai and then expanded to Kolkata
and since last year September they have been releasing RAM sweeps for
additional 9 cities, namely Lucknow, Kanpur, Jaipur, Nagpur, Chennai,
Hyderabad, Pune, Indore, and Ahemdabad. From the last sweep which was released
for the weeks 27-34 in October 2011 it was Red FM which was the leader in
Hyderabad with 28% Listenership. But the one released last week for the Week
6-13 of 2012 it seems Mirchi has taken over as the Number 1 station in
Hyderabad and that too with 35% listenership, it sure is massive rise for
Mirchi in Hyderabad. Is it that Red FM went on a slide because they embraced
Multi lingual programming?
The good news for Hyderabad is that people are sticking to a
particular station for longer duration; the time they spent at a radio station
before changing the channel has doubled during day hours for both weekday and Weekends.
The number of listeners listening to the radio (any station) has decreased
during morning hours but has increased substantially for evening and late night
hours. The number of people listening to the radio at home has decreased by 6%
but that has been well compensated by the addition of listeners in the
cars/travel/conveyance. Overall the growth in listenership has been about 30 %.
Most of the new listeners are those working in executive positions and those
working in clerical/supervisory position with atleast graduation as a minimum
degree.
Quickly moving to the India Radio Forum Awards 2012, RJ Sheker
from Big 92.7 FM Hyderabad won the Best Breakfast Show and RJ Bezawada Basha of
Radio Mirchi Vijaywada (Mirchi Gold) won the RJ of the Year 2012 award.
As of RAM ratings for Delhi, Fever FM continues to be Number
1 radio station in Delhi with 18.4% Listenership and is number 8th
in Bangalore, 4th in Mumbai and 5th in Kolkata. Gold FM remains at
Number 2 with 17.7% listenership in Delhi, Number 3 in Mumbai and Number 9 in
Kolkata. Radio Mirchi is Number 3 in Delhi with 16% listenership and is number
1 in Kolkata and Mumbai and Number 2 in Bangalore. Radio City is Number 4 with
12.3% listenership in Delhi, Number 1 in Bangalore and Number 2 in Mumbai. Red
FM is number 5 in Delhi with 12.2% listenership, number 4 in Bangalore and 6 in
Mumbai and Kolkatta. Big FM is number 6 in Delhi with 8.5%, number 3 in
Bangalore, 5 in Mumbai and 2 in Kolkatta. Radio one is Number 7 in delhi with
4.6% and number 7 in Bangalore and Kolkatta and Number 9 in Mumbai. Oye FM is
Number 8 in Delhi with 4% listenership and is number 10 in Mumbai and number 8
in kolkatta. Rainbow FM is number 9 in delhi with 2.2% and is number 5 in
Bangalore, number 8 in Mumbai and number 10 in kolkatta. Hits FM is number 10
in Delhi with 2% listenership.
I don’t expect many changes in the RAM Ratings except that
Musical chair would once again be played out between Fever FM and Gold FM in
Delhi. As for Rainbow FM I don’t expect any drastic improvement but the fact
that Prasar Bharati has employed a PR agency to help them build their brand
should offer some change in their programming. Radio One has kind of settled in
their number 7 position across cities with their International flavor. As for
International stations I scanned HumFM in Dubai after a long time and did not
find their morning jock creating any impact. Prateeka on RedFM is her usual self but seems like stuck with nothing new . When it comes to evening shows I feel that there is nothing like RJ
Naved of Radio Mirchi Delhi, he surely
has come a long way from a nobody whose only claim to fame earlier was that he
was picked from a RJ Hunt. And no he is not the same RJ Naved who is rumored to
be the architect of Present UP Chief Minister’s sweep in the recent elections.
Let me also put my thanks to my dear dear friend RJ Narendra
Joshi of Rainbow India FM of Delhi who dropped in the studios on my show to
tell us all that he is the only and India’s first writer to be audio
transcribing movies for the visually challenged people. Some of the movies that
he audio transcribed are Peepli Live, DhobiGhat and Black. So until I write again keep guesing whats that I am going to be doing on my show called Hyperabad on Twin Cities Rainbow FM 101.9
No comments:
Post a Comment