CHENNAI: Radio has been growing at a faster pace than other media platforms such as print and television. And, this is the right time to leverage advertisers’ interest in radio, says Abraham Thomas, CEO of Radio City.
Ad volume, over the past six years, has increased at a CAGR of 12.1 per cent compared to industry average of 9.1 per cent, according to data by AirCheck.
According to Thomas, local and national advertisers are recognising the power and returns on investment of radio. “The biggest advantage of radio is that it provides great local presence. Our brand philosophy is that we are the best radio station for your city. Therefore, instead of being a national brand present across cities, we have taken a bottom-up approach... We are a bunch of local radio stations that make a national brand called Radio City.”
By providing a hyper-localised content and programming of individual city stations, Radio City has been able to attract listenership in different cities.
Jagran Prakashan Group’s Music Broadcast Ltd (MBL), which runs Radio City, is also on an expansion spree, unveiling new stations on the frequencies obtained under the first batch of Phase-III of radio privatisation auction. MBL had acquired 11 frequencies in the auction that concluded in September 2015 including Patna, Kanpur and Kolhapur and is looking to acquire more firms after the three-year lock-in period which expires on March 31, 2018.
“We plan to expand into tier-II and tier-III cities and build new intellectual properties to strengthen the brand,” Kartik Kalla, executive vice- president and national head of programming, at Radio City 91.1 said.
The company also managed to sustain Ebitda (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) margin at 34 per cent in FY17, despite investments in 11 new stations. “We did better than we envisaged. All our newly acquired stations became operational in Q4 and we expect to break even earlier than expected. On the back of our leadership position in most of our markets including Mumbai and Bengaluru, we are able to register revenue growth superior to the industry,” said Apurva Purohit, director, Music Broadcast.