MAM
RAM outlines radio listening trends in 9 cities
MUMBAI: Ahmedabad, Chennai and Hyderabad have emerged as the growth markets for the radio industry, according to the second round of ‘9 Indian Cities Listenership Sweeps‘ data provided by RAM, the radio measurement service of TAM.
The Southern metros have seen more than 30 per cent growth in listening thresholds while Ahmedabad has witnessed 15 per cent growth. Pune, Kanpur, Indore and Nagpur have remained at almost the same levels as the previous round.
The second sweeps data is for the period of February-April 2012.
According to RAM, the sweeps release will help the radio industry, including the broadcasters and media planning agencies, to assess the impact that radio is having on audiences in towns other than the major metros.
TAM CEO LV Krishnan said, “The second roll out is as per timelines committed by us to the industry. After the first sweeps in October last year, this second one shows interesting changes in radio consumption patterns. While in some markets, radio consumption base itself has seen an increase, in others granular trends like Out Of Home (OOH) listenership have seen an encouraging increase.”
RAM‘s second sweeps highlights changes in radio consumption behaviour not only across the nine cities but also in comparison to the first round of sweeps which was released in October 2011.
The RAM panel coverage was expanded to nine additional cities – Ahmedabad, Chennai, Hyderabad, Indore, Jaipur, Kanpur, Lucknow, Nagpur and Pune. Prior to that, RAM operated out of the four Indian metros – Bangalore, Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai.
According to RAM, average audience in morning day part has seen a surge in Ahmedabad, peaking at 9 am with a 70 per cent growth. This is largely due to a 10 per cent growth in cumulative reach. In fact, cumulative reach has grown across all the days, with Sunday leading the pack. While 95 per cent of the audience cumulative reach build up was achieved by afternoon earlier, now 95 per cent of the audience can be targeted by the morning day part alone (at a weekly level).
Time spent, however, has dropped marginally in Ahmedabad, according to RAM data.
Radio listeners in Chennai, in sharp contrast, have significantly increased their time spent, led by the morning day-part band.
The share of SEC C‘s listenership has grown from 37 per cent to 43 per cent, while cumulative reach levels have dropped across all the day parts.
The share of in-home listenership has grown from 76 per cent to 87 per cent. The audience build up has got spread through the day.
In Hyderabad, evening and night day parts have grown significantly while morning has witnessed a drop in listenership levels. The drop in morning day part is primarily due to drop in cumulative reach levels, while TSL (time spent listening) has grown. In fact, across the day parts, TSL has almost doubled across the day parts.
Another significant trend is that contribution from SEC A & B has increased.
There is a 6 per cent drop in share of in-home listening, reflected in the growth of listening share from car/travel/conveyance. According to RAM, equal and high threshold of listenership can be observed across weekdays and weekends. The evening and night day parts add significant amount of audiences to cumulative reach build up.
The other key findings from the six cities are as follows:
Nagpur:
1. The weekly listenership levels have remained at the same levels as the previous round
2. The daily cume reach has gone up, with Sunday being the maximum, but time spent levels are down across all the days.
3. Share of In-home listening grows from 82-87%
Jaipur:
1. Drop in listenership thresholds across the day
2. The same reflects in the cume reach levels across the day parts
3. Dominance of SEC DE in Jaipur‘s listenership contribution is normalized. Proportionate contribution from all SECs to listenership
4. Morning day part continues to be the one where listenership peaks, though at a lower threshold
5. Sunday emerges as the one with highest cume reach and time spent levels
6. The audience build up has got spread through the day. It takes up to afternoon day part to cover 95% of all audience.
Indore:
1. The listenership peaks have interchanged between mid morning and morning, morning peak emerging as the highest. Other day parts are more or less are at the same threshold
2. At a weekly level, morning day part emerges as the highest in cume reach and time spent.
3. Mid-morning day part saw a reduction cume reach levels.
4. TSL level growth in night day part
5. Share of In-home listening significantly drops from 94% to 71%. Maximum growth in Car share of listening (22%)
6. Saturday loses audiences as Sunday emerges as the destination of maximum listening
7. Faster cume reach build up across the day as 95% of the audiences are reached by the mid-morning day part.
Pune:
1. Similar listenership thresholds across the day parts
2. Mid-morning to night, there is a drop in cume reach levels, but across the day parts there is a growth in TSL levels
3. Contribution from different places of listening remains the same
4. Sunday emerges as the destination of highest listenership
5. Audience addition from afternoon grows in the current year
Lucknow:
1. Listenership thresholds drop across the day parts, while night primetime holds the thresholds
2. While there is cume reach growth in some of the day parts, there has been TSL drop across all of them
3. Share of listening from 35+ age group comes down
4. Contribution from in-home listening grows from 89%-93%
5. Cumulative audience on Sunday grow from 82% to 94%
6. Weekdays and weekends have similar thresholds of TSL
Kanpur:
1. Marginal changes in day part wise preferences
2. Growth in consumption share from SEC AB and 45+ age group
3. OOH share of listening grows from 23 to 29%, majority of the growth coming from car/travel
4. Sunday emerges as the clear leader in listening threshold
Digital
Content India 2026 opens with a copro pitch, a spice evangelist and a £10,000 prize for Indian storytelling
Dish TV and C21Media’s three-day summit puts seven ambitious projects before an international jury, and two walk away with serious development money
MUMBAI: India’s content industry gathered in Mumbai this March for Content India 2026, a three-day summit organised by Dish TV in partnership with C21Media, and it wasted no time making a statement. The event opened with a Copro Pitch that put seven scripted and unscripted television concepts before an international panel of judges, and by the end of it, two projects had walked away with £10,000 each in marketing prize money from C21Media to support development and international promotion.
The jury, comprising Frank Spotnitz, Fiona Campbell, Rashmi Bajpai, Bal Samra and Rachel Glaister, evaluated a shortlist that ranged from a dark Mumbai comedy-drama about mental health (Dirty Minds, created by Sundar Aaron) to a Delhi coming-of-age mystery (Djinn Patrol, by Neha Sharma and Kilian Irwin), a techno-thriller about a teenage gaming prodigy (Kanpur X Satori, by Suchita Bhatia), an investigative crime drama blending mythology and modern thriller (The Age of Kali, by Shivani Bhatija), a documentary on India’s spice heritage (The Masala Quest, hosted by Sarina Kamini), a documentary on competitive gaming (Respawn: India’s Esports Revolution, by George Mangala Thomas and Sangram Mawari), and a reality-horror competition merging gaming and immersive fear (Scary Goose, by Samar Iqbal).
The session was hosted by Mayank Shekhar.
The two winners were Djinn Patrol, backed by Miura Kite, formerly of Participant Media and known for Chinatown and Keep Sweet: Pray & Obey, with Jaya Entertainment, producers of Real Kashmir Football Club, also attached; and The Masala Quest, created and hosted by Sarina Kamini, an Indian-Australian cook, author and self-described “spice evangelist.”
The summit also unveiled the Content India Trends Report, whose findings made for bracing reading. Daoud Jackson, senior analyst at OMDIA, set the tone: “By 2030, online video in India will nearly double the revenue of traditional TV, becoming the main driver of growth.” He noted that in 2025, India produced a quarter of all YouTube videos globally, overtaking the United States, while Indians collectively spend 117 years daily on YouTube and 72 years on Instagram. Traditional subscription TV is declining as free TV and connected TV gain ground, forcing broadcasters to innovate. “AI-generated content is just 2 per cent of engagement,” Jackson added, “highlighting the dominance of high-quality human content. The key for Indian media companies is scaling while monetising effectively from day one.”
Hannah Walsh, principal analyst at Ampere Analysis, added hard numbers to the picture. India produced over 24,000 titles in January 2026 alone, with 19,000 available internationally. The country now accounts for 12 per cent of Asia-Pacific content spend, up from 8 per cent in 2021, outpacing both Japan and China. Key exporters include JioStar, Zee Entertainment, Sony India, Amazon and Netflix, delivering over 7,500 Indian-produced titles abroad each year. The top importing markets are Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, the United States and the Philippines. Scripted content dominates globally at 88 per cent, with crime dramas and children’s and family titles performing particularly strongly.
Manoj Dobhal, chief executive and executive director of Dish TV India, framed the summit’s ambition squarely. “Stories don’t need translation. They need a platform, discovery, and reach, local or global,” he said. “India produces more movies than any country, our streaming platforms compete globally, and our tech and creators win international awards. Yet fragmentation slows growth. Producers, platforms, and tech move in different lanes. We need shared spaces, collaboration, and an ecosystem where ideas, technology, and people meet. That is why we built Content India.”
The data, the pitches and the prize money all pointed to the same conclusion: India is not waiting for the world to discover its stories. It is building the infrastructure to sell them.
