MUMBAI: On the occasion of its 1st anniversary, Viacom18?s 24x7 comedy channel Comedy Central India is bringing the multi award winning Ugly Betty to India. The show will premiere on the channel on Monday 21 January at 9.00 pm.

Ugly Betty is based on a popular Colombian telenovela which has already been successfully translated in many markets across the globe like Mexico, India, Russia, Greece and Germany. In India, it has been reproduced as ?Jassi Jaisi Koi Nahin?.

The one hour show will see episodes from Season 1 where the lead protagonist - Betty Suarez, a 22-year-old, quirky, Mexican American woman from Queens, New York lacks in fashion sense but has always had one goal in life: to make it in the publishing business. She is known to be bold, good-hearted, smart and hard-working but due to personal circumstances she is thrown into a different world when she lands a job at Mode, a trendy, high fashion magazine based in Manhattan.

Comedy Central?s new show Ugly Betty will also include a robust cross promotion plan across network and outside network channels, promotions in print media, mailers and trade touch points along with interactivity on Twitter and Facebook. The show will also see innovations across Inox, Gold?s Gym and Crossword amongst others.

NEW DELHI: The number of advertisers on FM radio has grown from 1,715 in 2005 to 5,581 in the period January to October 2012, while the number of brands has grown from 1,295 to 8,133 during the same period.

Furthermore, the number of categories has risen from 285 in 2005 to 379 in January-October 2012 and the volume of hours has grown from 5,273 to 41,202 in the same period.

According to the Ernst and Young Report ?Poised for Growth: FM radio in India? prepared for the Confederation of Indian Industry, the industry?s revenues have been estimated at Rs 14.2 billion for 2012-13 and have been growing at a CAGR of 14 per cent over the last three years.

However, the rate of growth is slowing down due to limited expansion opportunities and the overall economic slowdown affecting all segments of media.

Retail Advertising on FM radio

Advertiser revenues comprise more than 85 to 90 per cent of the total revenue generated by FM Radio companies. Unlike in international radio markets, in which local retail advertisers contribute as much as 75 per cent of a station?s ad revenues, retail advertisers account for only 40 per cent of the total ad revenues of Indian radio companies. Regional radio networks generate the higher proportion of their revenues (averaging between 60 to 80 per cent of their total ad revenues) from retail advertisers.

In the past three years, retail advertising on FM radio has grown twice as fast as national advertising. Overall, there is a 10 to 20 per cent growth in the number of ad campaigns using radio, which is now an integral part of around 50 per cent of all ad campaigns ? rising to as much as 70 per cent of ad campaigns during festive seasons.

Revenue growth in FM radio is driven by launch of new stations in the A+ and A category towns, allowing for more programming variety to emerge and for new listeners to be acquired. At present there are only 4 to 9 stations available in these towns. In contrast there are many more TV channels, newspapers, magazines, outdoor sites and websites available.

Ad rev expansion

Launch of stations across more tier II and tier III cities, which enables radio companies to provide advertisers with a bouquet of channels that can support brand launches across states or regions as a substitute for print or regional TV, retention of key sales talent and client relationships, extensive focus on events and activations to give more practical solutions to advertisers and enable them to experience the effectiveness of radio, and implementation of an accurate nationwide measurement mechanism that will evaluate returns across FM stations can also help revenue growth.

The largest categories on radio include retail, real estate, auto, FMCG, education, and so forth. Of the total media spends on radio, real estate alone contributes 10 to 15 per cent. Telecom, TV channels, Retail, and handsets contribute 6 to 10 per cent while auto, FMCG, durables, and financial services contribute less than 5 per cent.

Radio companies are witnessing increasing inventory utilization ratios, despite a subdued advertising environment, on the back of sustained, albeit falling, GDP growth and reduced effective rates. Utilization of inventory in the radio industry grew by 10 per cent in 2012 over 2011 accounting for the bulk of the industry?s revenue growth. Average utilization of ad inventory across radio players ranged between 65 to 75 per cent. The 10 largest Indian cities recorded high inventory utilization at around 85 per cent in FY12. These calculations assume a 13-minutes-per-hour, 17-hour day from 7 a.m to midnight.

Ad rates

Ad rates have been growing, but are still nearly 25 per cent below their pre-slowdown peak levels of 2008. Currently, the ad rates for a ten second slot vary from Rs 100 to a few thousand rupees, depending on the radio station, city and time-band. Ad rates are the highest in Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru, where city-specific advertising can go up to Rs 2000 for a ten-second slot. Rates for pan India advertising can vary from Rs 4000 to Rs 10000 for a ten-second slot, and there is still significant room for them to grow.

The average ad rates of a large radio network were Rs 9,800 in FY 12 ? substantially lower than the peak average rates of Rs 13,000 to Rs 14,000 witnessed in 2008. The dip is also the result of changes in the ad inventory mix, with higher utilization in non-metro stations where ad rates are lower than in the metros.

Innovating on campaigns

Radio companies have been experimenting with the medium and innovating over the years, trying to incorporate interactive elements that engage their audiences better and increase advertisers? ROI (generally referred to as non-FCT sales). Furthermore, innovative campaigns command a premium over plain vanilla ad-spot rates. Non-FCT sales can contribute up to 20 per cent of a radio company?s total revenue today.

Live and telecasted events, primarily centered round music awards, sports events, youth events, and so forth provide alternate sources of revenues, as do activations to help advertisers connect directly with their target audiences to demonstrate products, generate leads, create awareness, induce product trials, and so forth. Customer promotions through internet or mobile phone-based contests, ticketing agents for concerts and plays, mobile radio, which enables listeners to access niche content on their mobile phones, Internet radio, and international revenues also provide alternate sources of revenue.

Activations

Activations are a growing source of revenue for radio companies. Entertainment Networks (India) Ltd reports that activation revenues currently contribute around 17 per cent of its overall revenues, and that it seeks to grow this segment in coming years.

Activations have become an integral part of the revenue mix of radio stations, and account for five to ten per cent of the revenues of large companies. Moreover, since radio is a local medium and activation teams have a good understanding of the dynamics of a town, activations generally create a greater buzz (with on-air promotions) than other media.

FM radio stations have introduced internet radio services, which help them to reach a targeted audience with a taste for niche genres. Radio Mirchi and Radio City operate four and three online radio stations respectively that cater to diverse tastes, including modern Bollywood and retro Bollywood songs as well as club mix and international music in their offerings.

FM radio stations are also looking to generate revenues by selling programming software of certain popular programs to international radio players. Moreover, Radio Mirchi runs radio stations outside India as well. ENIL assists international radio companies to create programmes and stationality for stations targeted at non-resident Indians.

MUMBAI: After the India-England series, the Pakistan?s cricket tour of India has become a casualty of the ongoing dispute between international media and Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).

News organisations around the world are angry that the BCCI has locked out major suppliers of photographic news material like Getty Images, Action Images and two Indian photo agencies.

International news agencies, which decided not to report on the England test series or provide any photographic coverage, are not covering the Indo-Pak series as well.

The BCCI?s decision to exclude photo news agencies from covering the games has provoked a widespread reaction from editors, publishers and other news organisations.

The India cricket board has however stood by its decision by contending that the primary businesses of photo syndication agencies involved the commercial sale and licensing of images rather than for editorial purposes which is against its guidelines.

"It is regrettable that the politically-charged Pakistan tour will be affected by the BCCI?s failure to recognise the long-standing importance of photographic news agencies in the flow of sport and news images every day," said the News Media Coalition, which campaigns for independent journalistic coverage at major sporting event.

Outside of India, virtually no photographs of the England Test series were published as the games unfolded from what has been labeled ?The Hidden Tour?, according to NMC.

"As a direct result of the BCCI stance, great sporting moments from the cricket tours to India are going unrecorded and therefore lost forever. England?s first four games were the hidden series and the Pakistan tour is heading for the same fate. That?s not good for cricket, nor for the image of India abroad,? said NMC Executive Director Andrew Moger.

The decision to refuse accreditation led to decisions by Thomson Reuters, Agence France-Presse and Associated Press to suspend reports of the tours as well as pictures. The Press Association, national agency in the United Kingdom, also did not supply photographs from the England Tests.

One of its member organisations, the World Association of Newspapers (WAN-IFRA), said in a statement: "All publishers, including those in India are concerned that the BCCI has decided to act against the photographic agency sector which has for years provided images for editorial customers in every country without problem. This is denying the ability of editors to select from the best of photography for the benefit of readers."

The photo agencies argue that they have been granted access to provide editorial coverage from numerous other sporting events such as cricket grounds, including those in Australia whose national team tour India in February next year.

While the BCCI has offered its own photographic account of the England games, none of the top online news websites outside of India has carried their images throughout the tour, the NWC stated.

Newspapers and big news websites such as the BBC have decided instead to resort to archive images to illustrate the key performances of players such as Alistair Cook for England and Sachin Tendulkar for India.