WorldSpace to launch Gujarati radio station

WorldSpace is planning to launch a Gujarati station shortly. WorldSpace currently offers subscribers a choice of over 40 stations including regional language stations of Kannada, Tamil, Telegu, Malayalam, Bengali, contemporary hindi film music, classic hindi film music, hindustani classical music and carnatic classical music.

"Since Gujarat is an important market for us, plans are on the anvil to launch a Gujarati station shortly," Andy Ras-Work, chief operating officer, WorldSpace Inc. told Business Standard.

He also said that the expansion of their portfolio of stations is a part of the company's constant endeavor to provide a better and enhanced experience to subscribers.

"We are constantly working on new programming and content strategies," said Ras-Work but refused to disclose the company's further expansion plans in the state.

He also refused to share the subscriber numbers of the state. He said , "We do not share subscriber numbers for a specific region, however we had an extremely positive response from customers in the region which has contributed to the strong growth that we witnessed from October to Decembe," he said.

During the fourth quarter of 2005, we added more than 40,000 net new subscribers, increasing our subscriber base by more than 50 per cent in the fourth quarter alone, Ras-Work added.