CCL to invest Rs 60 cr in FM business

Century Communications Limited (CCL), an integrated media and entertainment company with interests in television, films, radio and other growing aspects of media business, will be investing over Rs 60 crore for its FM radio business. The company has bagged nine licences in certain Tier-II cities.

CCL has received licences for cities like Daman, Ahmednagar, Bilaspur, Tirunelveli, Tuticorin, Mangalore, Rajahmundry, Gulbarga and Warangal.

Gitanjali Sehgal, Senior Vice President - Corporate Strategy and Corporate Affairs, said that it is also planning to apply for more licences for the next phase which will open in November.

"Apart from the existing nine licences, we would also be applying for licenses in more of such Tier-II and Tier-III cities and some of the Tier-I cities in November," said Sehgal. CCL is yet to decide upon the branding of its radio station, although research for the same is on, added Sehgal.

The company is also looking to tie-up with national players like telecom operators among others for specialised services and schemes for its potential listeners.

Sehgal said that the content format for the radio station would be a mix of musical as well as talk radio. Moreover, the content would be regional and localised for each city.

"With so many radio stations to come up in an year or two, the key for success of these stations would be differential content. We would try to do something different as well by introducing music as well as talk shows and other formats," informed Sehgal.

Meanwhile, work on all these nine radio stations has begun in phased manner with infrastructure being set up in some of these cities.