Sunday, February 24, 2008

Not just Music, Now News too...

If the recommendations of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) gets approval from the Broadcasting Ministry, you could soon hear news on private FM channels too! The sources of news for these FM channels have to be one of All India Radio, Doordarshan, authorised TV news channels, UNI, PTI or other authorised news agencies.

Well, now state owned FM Channels like Vividh Bharathi 102.9 FM and FM Rainbow 101.3 FM broadcast news in bytes or for a brief moment. If the Broadcasting Ministry gives its node to the TRAI's proposal, this could begin a new era in news broadcasting. Now, with FM Radios becoming extremely popular in Metros and Tier II cities in the country, this could well change how fast people get to know the news and have their opinion.
It is not that private FM channels are not broadcasting any news stuff now. They are, with those score updates of cricket matches and some wacky but interesting news to keep the listeners tuned. Also, some untraditional news like jam busters or reporting of traffic jams in various parts of the city in peak hours. How these jam busters by FM channels played their role in reducing traffic jam needs to be surveyed!

So, now we might have FM Stations which broadcast news too, along the usual film songs. In Bangalore, there are already 7 private FM Radio channels - Radio City 91.1 FM, Radio Mirchi 98.3 FM, Radio One 94.3 FM, Radio Indigo 91.9 FM, Radio Big 92.7 FM, SFM 93.5 FM, Fever 104 FM. It would be interesting to see how these channels would make the best use of this license, if they get one. With very competitive FM Radio market in place, sometimes these channels have used the same trick to get more audience. One example for this would be the back to back playing of 3 songs with no advertisements in between. Radio Mirchi, Radio Big and SFM, all use the same concept with different names. Now, dont ask me who started this first!

Regards
Raveesh

References:

Also Read,

2 comments:

  1. this was on cards... i am curious how it will be packaged ...

    btw what about cricket commentary on FM .. why can't TRAI recommend license to it ... i am sure it will be big hit during IPL season ( as Mobile TV is still a dream in India).

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yes Shande, you are right.
    Cricket Commentry on FM is a good idea. But here too only state owned FM channels broadcast cricket commentry as of now. TRAI can think on these lines too.

    ReplyDelete

LinkWithin

Related Posts with Thumbnails