India e Canada, la radio commerciale incassa

Se le stazioni commerciali americane lamentano vistosi cali di rendimento pubblicitario, in nazioni come India e Canada l'industria della radiofonia privata afferma invece di essere molto soddisfatta. In India il fenomeno delle stazioni FM ha avuto un questi anni una crescita incredibile. Da 30 a oltre 90 città coperte, 8 miliardi di rupie - nell'articolo qui in calce si parla di "crore", unità di misura indiana equivalente ai nostri 10 milioni - di fatturato pubblicitario (circa 120 milioni di euro), con uno spot radiofonico che costa il 65% in meno di uno televisivo e ha un bacino d'ascolto del 64% più esteso, mentre lo stesso investimento porta 760 spot radiofonici e 3 inserzioni sulla stampa.
Ma anche in Canada, dove peraltro prosegue l'abbandono delle frequenze delle onde medie (a eccezione della porzione 1610-1700, dove aumenta il numero di low power di nicchia) a favore dell'FM, sono contenti di come sono andate le cose nel 2007, malgrado la concorrenza subita dalle nuove tecnologie.

FM radio making rapid strides, revenue expected to touch Rs 800 cr this year
T E Narasimhan / Chennai August 27, 2008

The entry of private players has boosted the fortunes of FM radio in a big way in the country. This has been consistently reflecting in the revenue earned by the industry, which grew to Rs 550 crore last year from Rs 350 crore a year ago. The industry is expected to close with over Rs 800 crore in revenue this year.
Apurva Purohit, president, Association of Radio Operators of India (AROI), and CEO of Radio City 91.1FM, said that FM radio channels are making rapid strides by having a presence in 91 cities as against 30 cities about two years ago. This has resulted in a growth in reach, which is faster than TV, reaching out to over 85 per cent of the Indian audience.
On cost, radio campaign turns out to be 65 per cent less expensive than TV while delivering 64 per cent larger reach. Speaking of print, the same investment on radio delivers 760 spots compared to a 3-print insertions at 11 per cent lower cost.
Again, a radio campaign with the same outlay as television runs longer with a 54 per cent lower cost.
Purohit also said radio is one of the preferred entertainment medium available today since people look for mobile entertainment. Indians spend over 75 minutes on radio per day. This is three times more than the time spent on print, said Purohit. She also noted that around 16 per cent of the listeners tune to FM through mobile phone.
Again, the FM audience is greatly skewed towards decision makers – be it working males or home makers. Thus, when it comes to quality of audience, radio reaches out to these two core groups which comprise every advertiser’s target, mainly for FMCG, retail, automobile, finance and interestingly TV programmes. As the television and print mediums are becoming costlier, radios are now attracting more advertisers.
This has attracted more players – currently there are about 40 entrepreneurs in the industry. From 2005, the government has earned around Rs 1,160 crore as licence fee. These players have invested over Rs 900 crore in expansion and are investing over Rs 800 crore as running cost.
The investment will go further if the government opts for de-licensing the industry. “At present, multiple frequencies are not allowed for a single channel. This stifles growth for channels like ours to experiment. We will be interested to participate in phase III of the FM channels bidding, if government allows, we would like to start a chat station, classical music to increase niche listenership and increase ad revenues from the medium,” said Purohit.
The foreign direct investment limit is also low at 20 per cent compared with other industries. If the government raises the FDI limit, many foreign investors are likely to enter the Indian market.
FM broadcasting is also facing manpower problem, said Purohit. Attrition level is around 25 per cent. Companies like Radio City 91.1FM have to take fresher and invest heavily in training them.

***

Private radio prospering in spite of popular new technologies: StatsCan

OTTAWA — A new report says traditional radio is prospering in spite of new technologies such as satellite radio, online radio and portable digital players.
Statistics Canada says advertising revenue among private radio broadcasters advanced six per cent to $1.5 billion in 2007.
That's the third time in five years radio advertising growth has outpaced advertising market growth as a whole.
And private radio reported 19.8 cents of profit per dollar of revenue last year before interest and taxes - that's the industry's third best result in 30 years, after 2006 and 2005.
FM radio generated 78.3 per cent of advertising revenues and 94.6 per cent of profits before interest and taxes last year.
StatsCan attributes private radio's recent financial successes largely to economic growth and industry restructuring.
It says regulatory changes in 1998 allowed for greater concentration of ownership, which helped radio withstand the competition from other media.
The industry also rationalized its operations by transferring AM stations to the generally more popular and more profitable FM band.
Furthermore, radio stations operating in the five largest census metropolitan areas last year generated almost twice as much profit before interest and taxes per dollar of revenue as stations operating in smaller markets.