MAM
Ad challenges for FM radio in Phase-III
MUMBAI: The new FM radio policy will speed up growth but the pie will not expand enough to make the sector profitable unless the bids are pursued within rational limits, experts said.
The private FM radio sector, sized at around Rs 10 billion, is expected to grow at 30-35 per cent due to Phase-III expansion as new towns surface and stations broadcast differentiated content in metros.
“The industry is currently growing at 20-22 per cent. After the new stations launch, the industry should see at least 30-35 per cent growth year-on-year,” Entertainment Network India Ltd (ENIL) CEO and executive director Prashant Panday said.
FM radio stations will be able to tap local advertisers and widen their advertising base but the rates will be under pressure.
“The new frequencies will be in smaller towns and the rates will be much lower,” Panday said.
Media agencies do not see a major boost in the sector‘s revenues as in the small towns ad rates could be even as low as Rs 75 per 10 seconds.
“The increase in revenue will come from local retailers and also at the cost of All India Radio. Also, a lot will depend on how the players manage to monetise on the differentiated content they create with their multiple frequencies in the metros,” the chief executive of a media agency said.
Law & Kenneth India CEO and managing partner Anil Nair thinks the changes will be very gradual. “Radio is largely used as an announcement and remainder medium. Every marketer assigns certain objectives to various mediums. A case in point — print is good to announce offers and promotions for local retail brands, while television is largely used to spread brand values and messages, because its an audio/video medium. Radio, on the other hand, is just an audio one. I doubt the overall equation will change,” Nair said.
With more players coming in as the geography spreads, the radio ad pie will further get sliced.
“The competition will increase. Clients will now have more choices and so will the customers,” averred Nair.
RK Swamy Media Group president Chintamani Rao is of the view that regional and local players will be at a great advantage. “The advent of a new medium is always great news,” he asserted.
TBWAIndia MD Nirmalya Sen believes the radio medium, which has always been considered as passive and secondary, is now going to change with expanded reach.
“The medium can become more interactive and can be used best when communicating regionally. Traditionally the medium has been used by retail and real estate entities to reach out to the local audiences. But not we might see even big national brands getting aggressive on this front,” Sen affirmed.
Radio always has been a highly cost-effective medium, helping brands to communicate with their target audiences at a very local level.
“The decision will benefit the outdoor media to a great extent as now there will be more players who would like to promote their brands through outdoor advertising. So I am really happy”, asserted OAP India CEO Abhijit Sengupta.
Brands
Zscaler, Airtel launch India AI Cyber Research Centre
New hub to boost cyber resilience and trusted AI use
NEW DELHI: As India’s digital engine roars ahead, so do the risks riding shotgun. In response, Zscaler, Inc. and Bharti Airtel have joined hands to launch the AI and Cyber Threat Research Center – India, a national initiative aimed at strengthening the country’s cyber defences and accelerating responsible AI adoption.
The centre is designed as a multi stakeholder platform that brings together industry, government and academia. Its mission is clear: protect critical sectors such as telecom, banking and energy, shield everyday digital users, and future proof India’s fast expanding online ecosystem.
India has long been a major innovation hub for Zscaler, with a substantial portion of its cyber research talent based here. With this new centre, that footprint evolves into a national collaboration engine. The idea is simple but ambitious, build in India, for India, and help power the country’s journey towards a secure and digitally self reliant future.
The timing is telling. India is building digital systems at population scale, not just enterprise scale. That scale has widened the attack surface dramatically. At the same time, cyber criminals and nation state actors are deploying AI to scan, probe and exploit vulnerabilities in minutes.
Zscaler’s research arm, ThreatLabz India, reports millions of infiltration attempts every month. These include espionage campaigns linked to regional geopolitical tensions, 1.2 million intrusion attempts from 20,000 sources targeting 58 Indian digital entities, and a rise in zero day exploit attempts across multiple industries.
In such an environment, perimeter based security models are struggling to keep pace. The new centre aims to push a shift towards secure by design systems and Zero Trust architecture.
Its strategy rests on four pillars: protect through real time intelligence, remediate by working directly with government agencies, facilitate adoption of AI driven security and Zero Trust frameworks, and build a stronger cybersecurity talent pipeline through specialised certifications.
As founding members, Zscaler and Airtel will combine global threat intelligence with local network visibility. Zscaler will deploy a dedicated India focused research team and draw insights from its Zero Trust Exchange platform, which processes over 500 billion daily transactions worldwide. Airtel, meanwhile, will contribute deep visibility into IoT and mobile traffic, helping detect suspicious activity faster and coordinate response across the ecosystem.
Bharti Airtel executive vice chairman Gopal Vittal, said the partnership extends Airtel’s commitment to safeguarding customers and the nation’s digital fabric. He added that the collaboration would address challenges unique to the Indian market and encourage secure and confident digital engagement.
Zscaler chief executive, chairman and founder Jay Chaudhry, said India’s digital ambition cannot be secured with legacy firewalls and VPNs. He noted that a modern Zero Trust architecture is essential for a hyper connected world and that the new centre would harness the scale of Zscaler’s global security cloud while empowering a new generation of Indian cyber defenders.
Additional members from critical public and private sectors are expected to join the initiative in the coming months, expanding its scope and deepening collaboration.
In a world where threats travel at machine speed, India’s answer is to think faster, collaborate wider and build smarter.
