The Hindu Business Line : Your favourite TV soaps on FM soon!

BORED of listening to the same motley of melodies blaring from your FM sets? There could be some respite with television entertainment software companies looking at radio as a good business opportunity. There are talks of introducing radio soap operas and serials for your listening pleasure.

According to industry buzz, Neena Gupta's extremely popular soap on Star Plus - Saans - is being reworked for a run on Radio City. Sources said that old serials too could be reworked to suit the radio format. Mr Ajay Patadia, President, Corporate Affairs and Company Secretary, Balaji Telefilms, said, "We are open to all options and there could be an opportunity in radio. However, we have not started work on this front.

Meanwhile, Ms Anurradha Prasad, Managing Director, B.A.G. Films, said that her company is talking to radio companies. It is looking at providing all kinds of programmes in both news and fiction genres. "If somebody wants us to make radio soaps or other fictional programmes, we are ready to do so," she added.

Industry analysts said that investments on content by private radio companies are very low and music comes quite cheap. Besides music, contests and gameshows form a large part of the fare doled out by FM channels.

Officials in the radio industry said that the present high license fee structure does not permit channels to innovate. "It all boils down to economics and all of us are risk averse. We can look at adding value to content only after the issue of license fee is sorted out. Internationally, there are specialist radio channels for sports, classical music and so on. These work on different economic models," said Mr Nischint Chawla, Head of Radio City. Another hurdle is that under the present norms outsourcing of content is not permitted.

The industry is hoping that there are policy level changes before the Government embarks on the second round of FM privatisation process. An Expert Committee chaired by Dr Amit Mitra, Secretary-General of the Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), is expected to submit its report shortly.

Sources said that among the various suggestions, the group is likely to recommend allowing 26 per cent foreign investment into the sector, migrating from the present license fee regime to a revenue sharing one and permitting private FM stations to broadcast news.

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