The FM Radio Industry in India has been one of the permanent sources of entertainment for a large amount of the Indian population. India’s radio industry was valued at around 21 billion Indian rupees at the end of 2022. According to Statista, the sector is forecasted to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 7-9% percent, with its value increasing to 26 billion Indian rupees by 2025. Radio’s presence is quite significant in tier-1 cities since over a decade but now more and more tier-2 and tier-3 cities are presenting themselves as a market opportunity for private players to exploit and gain a hold of.
Here are 5 trends we think that shape the future of FM Radio Industry in India:
- Hyperlocal Content: To serve the demands of the regional and local audience of radio listeners in the country, the content broadcasted on radio channels is being done in regional languages and other programmes are also region relevant to ensure engagement of the local audience and a wider presence in the nooks and corners of the nation. An example of this trend can be traced with the fact that RedFM has been increasing it’s presence to 68 stations across India as of March 2022 and they are promoting local artists and music by giving them a platform with regional shows and even organising award ceremonies for regional music.
- Interactive Shows: Modern radio audience wants engaging content delivery; listeners don’t just want a Radio Jockey to conduct a one-way communication but instead they want shows in which listeners could put forward their point of view and have common people represented on mainstream radio media. Shows which offer common people a platform to speak up are rising day by day and we feel that this will continue to increase with shows specifically dedicated to this purpose. To portray this creatively, Big FM has a specific show dedicated to people who can showcase their singing abilities on a show called ‘Blue Mic’ which was launched in 2021, this show promotes independent talent and gives the common people a platform to showcase their talents.
- Entertainment Education Radio: Entertainment-Education is a communication strategy that aims to alleviate a social issue or educate the public through a personalised piece of entertainment. It is defined by a set of techniques and methodologies which all aim to use various levels of mass media to communicate social and behaviour change. Channel dedicated to the purpose of education have been popular in recent years on television and on radio channels, there could be shows of educational content dedicated to specific subjects to target different segments of audience. A famous example of this is All India Radio launching a weekly interactive programme called ‘Abhyaas’ for students appearing for competitive exams, listeners can reach out to hosts via WhatsApp with their queries which are addressed at 9:30AM-10AM of every Saturday with subjects being alternated every week.
- Micro-Content: With people’s attention spans shortening and the need for more information in less time, micro-content serves this purpose of the people. Micro-content is small bits of content created from larger ‘episodes’ of shows, to basically repurposing the content to increase reach and give a gist of information to boost engagement for the ultimate aim of hooking the audience for a larger time. Instagram Reels, YT Shorts, TikTok etc are popular forms of micro-content platform. A perfect example of this is various radio stations offering micro content in the form of funny joke bits and musical trailers so this feature will only be on the up in coming years.
- Impact Radio: Impact Entertainment is storytelling that is self-aware of its potential impact on its audiences and incorporates that knowledge to effect positive change at the individual, local, or global scale on one or more social issues. The purpose of impact entertainment is to raise awareness on social, environmental and other issues of public importance. Radio stations conduct CSR activities as it is a mandatory procedure but impact radio would offer a way for radio stations to create impact and stand for a cause without it being just a tick to the checkbox in the larger scheme of things. Example of this is 90.4 FM Radio Bundelkhand, where this radio station, founded in 2008, talks of the crucial topics in the society raising awareness about them and recently one of their RJs, Varsha Raikwar was named one of UN’s Young Climate Leader of 2021 as she addresses the issue of climate change on her radio show on the channel.
