The Hindu Business Line : Big 92.7 FM ties up with Asian FM

Chennai, Sept. 4 Big 92.7 FM has tied up with Asian FM of the US to syndicate “Hinglish” non-music content to the latter. The Rs 400-crore radio initiative from Adlabs Films, part of Reliance ADAG, recently launched a separate division — Big Reach — to explore non-traditional revenue streams for Big FM.

According to Mr Jayyant Bhokare, Vice-President, Business Development, Big 92.7 FM, the Asian FM tie-up is one of the ‘non-traditional sources of revenue’ in the company’s radar. As per the agreement, Big FM will create separate non-music content in Hindi and English on the similar lines the FM station broadcasts in India and supply to Asian FM.

For Big FM, the move marks the foray into the international arena.

“The content, which will be heard across major cities of the US, will cover the pegs of devotional, humour, romance, television, health and of course the Bollywood,” said Mr Bhokare.

Asian FM in the US is mainly targeted at the Indian diaspora there.

Big FM is also in dialogues with various FM channels in other parts of the world. “Our next possible entry will be to West and South-East Asia and Europe,” he said.

Apart from producing contents, Big Reach is also into organising on ground events for its clients. Mr Bhokare said globally, non-traditional revenues account for 20 to 30 per cent of the channel’s turnover.

In India, Adlabs Films acquired licences for a total of 45 FM channels (This includes 20 cities in the North, 7 cities in the East, 9 cities in the West and 9 cities in the South) and has launched in 31 cities, and plans to launch the remaining 14 stations by the end of this year. The brand has signed on film stars Abhishek Bachchan for the Hindi belt, Asin for the Telugu and Tamil markets, and Upendra for the Kannada market.

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