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Radio
Mirchi will unveil a visual radio in Delhi by the end of this month,
making it the third city in the world to adopt a technology that
will open up a new revenue for the private FM radio operator.
Radio
Mirchi is partnering with Hutch and Airtel to offer this service.
The broadcast will be available on Nokia mobile phones with Hewlett-Packard
(HP) as the technology provider.
"We
have identified four key markets including Mumbai for launching
visual radio. Though it is too early to exploit strong revenues
from this medium, it will give us a presence in emerging platforms
like mobile phones," says Entertainment Network (India) Ltd
managing director and CEO AP Parigi.
Radio
Mirchi will speed ahead of Virgin Radio which is planning to launch
visual radio later this year. "We are doing test runs and will
launch it this year," says Virgin Radio UK director of digital
media James Cridland.
Helsinki
in Finland and Singapore are the other two places where visual radio
has kicked off commercially. The plan to launch in Delhi was announced
today by Radio Mirchi deputy-CEO Prashant Pandey at the India Radio
Forum 2006.
Radio
stations are turning to new revenue streams as they are facing competition
from emerging technologies. Specific threats from MP3, which had
an estimated 55 million devices in the market in 2005, and internet
webcasting are eating into the earnings of traditional radio. So
the way out is to adopt into new digital platforms like direct-to-home
(DTH) and digital audio broadcasting (DAB).
Virgin
is moving its content to such platforms. "About 28 per cent
of our audience is coming from new platforms. As for visual radio,
it is important to have a presence in this segment. Nokia will have
100,000 handsets in UK for visual radio by the end of the year,"
says Cridland.
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