Can the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (Trai’s) latest recommendations help revive FM radio? Or is it too late?
India’s Rs 2,100 crore radio business has been severely impacted by the pandemic, the rise of streaming, and a host of structural issues.
Even as listenership and advertising (ad) volumes rose, its share of ad revenues dropped from 3.5 per cent (Rs 3,100 crore) of ad spends in 2019 to 2 per cent in 2020 and stayed there.
“Radio is not seen as a strategic medium for frequency or reach by clients,” says Shrikant Shenoy, associate vice-president at Lodestar UM, a