Indian Media Pie

GroupM study reveals that Radio takes 3% of the Indian media advertising pie, TV at 36% while newspapers still keeps the lions share.

Mint reports:

The media story in India is very different from that in the West. traditional media such as newspapers and magazines are holding their own here in the face of new media, unlike in many countries where print has been losing readers, and thereby advertising revenue, to the Internet. Both the newspaper and the television — the two biggest businesses in the media market here — are witnessing high growth rates, and are the primary choice for advertisers.

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XM versus Sirius

An excellent commentary on satellite radio in the US (XM-Sirius merger) and observations on new technologies by Bob Leftsetz.

Let’s just limit our discussion to the car. That’s where radio is king. Sure, people listen at home, but the real money, the main activity, is in the automobile, where you’re a captive audience.

Now radio has been threatened not so much by the CD or the iPod, but by the cell phone. A great number of people are not listening to music in the car at all. They’ll only stop talking and start listening when what’s coming out of the speakers is more interesting than the blather coming out of their hand-set. As for the CD…that’s passe. As for the iPod, it never plays anything you don’t know. And you want to hear what you don’t know, you want to be exposed to new things, it’s human nature.

[…] But satellite radio. It’s in all new cars. Has been in most for years. The key is to get people to tune in, to pay for it.

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Satellite Radio in India to share 4% of revenue with the Government

The Indian telecom regulator TRAI has recommended a cap on Foriegn Direct Investment of 76% and 4% revenue share with the government for Satellite radio in India.

Economic Times reports:

Currently, World Space is the only player in India to offer such a service. On the implementation of the new policy, WorldSpace will not only have to find a local partner to hold a 26% equity stake in its Indian operations, but will also have to share 4% of its revenues with the government here.

Radio Indigo

In Bangalore, Radio Indigo is one FM station that tries to be different, by playing music that differentiates it from the rest (Western pop/rock, Classic rock, Jazz and World music). Before hitting the FM airwaves, Indigo had a presence on the Worldspace satellite radio in the early 2000s. Much of my Sunday mornings during that time was largely devoted to Indigo, which had some great programs on weekend. While other channels have revised their genre of music for more foot print and ad revenues, Radio Indigo has completely stuck to its roots, thanks to the visionary owner Rajeev Chandrasekhar.

Mint has profiled Mr. Chandrasekhar in its weekend edition, Lounge.

Chandrasekhar’s involvement in the media will also extend to a 2-hour programme
that he will host on his FM station. It will “play blues, contemporary rock…” It
won’t just be about the music he likes, Chandrasekhar says. “If the point of
having a radio station is to play only music I like, it would be cheaper to buy
a music player rather than invest Rs35 crore in running a station,” he adds.