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R. Ravikumar

Plans Hindustani music channel too

Chennai May 24 State-owned All India Radio (AIR) has recently launched a separate channel for Carnatic music on the DTH platform.

The FM channel — Ragam — now available exclusively on Prasar Bharati's DTH platform, is being broadcast from Tiruchi.

Asked whether this initiative is to take on the satellite radio channel Shruti from WorldSpace, Mr K. Srinivasa Ragavan, Station Director-Chennai, says, "This is aimed at meeting our audience's demand for Carnatic music." Now available from 6 a.m. to midnight, the channel is all set to go 24X7 very soon.

Shortly, AIR may also launch a similar channel for Hindustani music too. According to him, however, there is no idea to launch any such niche channels in the FM radio space at present.

Other channels

AIR currently has two FM Radio channels — FM Gold and FM Rainbow. While FM Gold is an 18-hour channel dedicated to classical music, sports and news, FM Rainbow is a 24X7 infotainment channel aimed at the youth segment. It recently changed the frequencies of these channels. FM Gold has moved from 105 to 102.3 and FM Rainbow from 107.1 to 101.4.

"The idea is to just bring our channels to the middle of the frequency spectrum so that our listeners do not have to slide through too many FMs to tune into ours," Mr Ragavan says. These two channels are also available on the DTH platform. According to Mr Ragavan, AIR has introduced a two-hour slot (9 p.m. to 11 p.m.) in its Rainbow channel exclusively for its DTH audience. "There are a lot of interactive programmes to enable our DTH listeners across the country to participate."

Ad revenue

After a content revamp, FM Rainbow is now doing "reasonably well", he says. Its ad revenues now stand at Rs 10 lakh a month, on an average. While some of its competitors in the FM space, charge up to Rs 1,800 for a 10-second slot, AIR charges Rs 600 during the prime-time band and Rs 300 during the lean-time band.

That apart, it also sells music content from its archives in CDs. This adds around Rs 1 lakh a month to its revenues, he says.

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