BANGALORE: South India would be a major place of action for the Phase III of radio licensing and it will also bring in differentiated programming, believe experts who were part of the session ‘The New Listener in Phase III Radio Reforms‘ at the third edition of the Ficci Media and Entertainment Business Conclave (MEBC 2011).

Ficci Radio Forum chairman and ENIL MD and CEO Prashant Panday, during his keynote address before the session said, "As many as 63 new stations are coming in the four states in the South -Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala. The South is going to be a major part of the action. South is a very intensive consumer of radio with a listenership of 40 million of the almost 120 million radio listeners in the country."

Panday spoke about the new policies that the Phase III would bring - these included having multiple frequencies, which meant that a broadcaster in a particular city could actually operate more than one station and hence allowed for differentiated programming.

"To bring in programming variety you need a lot more channels. In most cities in other parts of the world, you have as many as 45 to 50 channels in a city. In a city like Chennai we have only nine private radio stations, in Mumbai you have only seven private channels. It‘s a shame that a country like ours which has 500 to 700 television channels, a few million outdoor sites, a few million websites, definitely more than a dozen newspaper editions in every city, we have only about seven or eight radio stations in any major city," bemoaned Panday.

However, he lauded the expected amendments in the lock-in clause which would stand reduced from the current five years to three years in the Phase III policies.

Panday also looked forward to a proposal that Trai was considering - to double the number of channels which can come in one single step, which is to reduce the separation between the radio stations to half of what is there currently.

While speaking about the perceptions about radio in many people‘s minds, Panday said, "One of the reasons that private radio is often considered as a secondary medium is that it came after television and print, but in the case of clients, and clients are very decisive in terms of spending their money, I don‘t think that there‘s a single national client today who does not use radio. And the share of radio has only been rising. Maybe the radio fraternity hasn‘t invested enough in branding, maybe we haven‘t invested enough in differential content, maybe because we have been held back by the spectrum constraints."

During the panel discussion that followed with Panday as the moderator, TAM Media Research CEO LV Krishnan revealed that the South market share to the overall contribution to media, specifically radio is similar in television. "35 per cent of the viewers sit in the four states of the South markets and also close to 35 per cent of revenues."

He added that there is a huge consumption of television and radio in terms of the sheer time spent.

Big FM business head Soumen Choudhury said, "I think that the listeners like to interact with the RJ‘s in the South and that‘s the uniqueness of radio. Compared to other markets South is a very different market, it has many more languages. Some of the bigger markets in radio have seen a fall, the newer markets and the tier 2 markets are the emerging markets."

Radio Mango head of sales and marketing Kamal Krishnan spoke about the Kerala media market, a state which did not have any A+ or A category cities, "I would say in the case of radio in Kerala is that radio is new as compared to the other markets in the country. Even then, the B, C and D category cities are given equal importance; because that‘s the only way we can reach out and enhance our reach. The kind of investments that we make in each and every city, the quality is never compromised. Also, Keralites are very interactive when it comes to participating in anything that is social and filmy."

Mathrubhumi Programming Head Prashanth Menon added," Keralites want FCP - that is Films, Cricket and Politics and though radio is completely banned from a department called politics, it gives every channel an opportunity to take a satirical aspect to politics, and because there are seven to eight regional television news channels in Kerala, people like to respond, to react to news channels."

While Menon did not like the idea of paying for the news capsules that had to be procured from All India Radio (AIR), he conceded that being a hardcore Keralite, he knew that Keralites loved news and that‘s why AIR still tops the charts in Kerala.

MUMBAI: Big Magic, Reliance Broadcast Network‘s music and entertainment channel for the Hindi heartland is launching a new devotional singing reality show for children.

The show, Big Bal Kalakaar, premieres in mid-December.

Powered by the company‘s FM station Big FM, auditions for the show will begin in 14 cities in Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand. The show will be hosted by singer Prajakta Shukre and will be judged by Jatin Pandit and Rajan-Sajan Mishra. Pandit Gulshan Bharti is the mentor for the kids.

The city auditions will culminate in four cluster auditions from which 10 young voices will be chosen for the 26 episode TV series with each episode having a special theme. These 10 participants will be mentored by Gulshan Bharathi for two weeks before the TV show begins.

Through the show Big Magic wants to reach out to the local young talent and will spread across music schools in the region as well.

Big Bal Kalakaar calls for auditions through media platforms of both Big Magic and Big FM. This will also be supported by a holistic media campaign involving - print, local cable, SMS pushes etc, the channel said in a statement.

MUMBAI: Colors is shifting three of its primetime shows to create an afternoon band, increasing its evening primetime and stretching Veer Shivaji to weekdays as it plans to regain the second spot with the launch of its big-ticket reality show Bigg Boss.

"With a strong fiction lineup during the week, we bring in Bigg Boss 5 to the 10.30 pm time slot this season. Na Aana Is Des Laado, which currently occupies this slot, will be moved to the 1 pm to build our afternoon band. On weekends, Bigg Boss 5 will air at 10 pm which will include the eviction episode on Saturdays (with Aakhri Farmaan) and some unseen tidbits from the show on Sundays (Undekha Action). This is being done with the aim to build up viewership on weekends and keep everyone tied to their seats with their fingers crossed in anticipation about who will be leaving the Bigg Boss house," says Colors head - programming Ashvini Yardi.

Apart from Laado, the channel is also shifting Hamari Saas Leela and Laagi Tujhse Lagan to build its afternoon slot.

As per latest Tam ratings, Laado clocked an average TVR of 2.8 while Hamari Saas Leela and Laagi Tujhse Lagan recorded 0.9 TVR and 1.6 TVR respectively.

The other changes include pulling the curtains on Mukti Bandhan and shifting Veer Shivaji from weekend band (Friday-Saturday, 8.30 pm) to weekday (Monday-Friday) 8.30 pm band.

"As part of our new scheduling, we have a new show Havan at 7 pm, followed by Sasural Simar Ka and Balika Vadhu, which are getting good ratings. Shivaji is a good and different show, which we think will get even better response on weekdays. Post that, we have shows catering to more urban audiences and finally Bigg Boss," Yardi explains.

On shifting of shows to afternoon band, she adds that it serves two purposes. "We will increase the original programming hours in afternoon; it also will help us get more viewership in the afternoon band," Yardi adds.

The channel is also going to premiere the Salman Khan-starrer Ready in the month.

Meanwhile, the Viacom18 channel is focusing all its energies on Bigg Boss. As the show will see two hosts Salman Khan and Sanjay Dutt for the first time, the channel has big promotion plans.

"We have a high-intensity 1200 GRP TV campaign, where apart from network channels we have extensively promoted the show on cross network channels. We have created 10 promos and a music video of the show. We have an impressive 20 city outdoor plan and in print, on 2 October, 100+ publications in 50+ cities will carry Bigg Boss cover. On radio, Big FM is our partner where they will also have multiple on-ground activities around the show," Colors AVP marketing Rajesh Iyer said.

Bigg Boss 5 will start on 2 October at 8 pm, while subsequent episodes will be aired from Monday to Friday at 10.30 pm and Saturday to Sunday at 10 pm on the channel.

Vodafone is continuing its partnership with the show for the third year in a row as presenting sponsor, while Garnier Men, Sony Cybershot, Tata Motors, HRI (Streax), Havells, Dollar (Baniyan) and Bisleri are seven associate sponsors.