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
Brands
GUEST COLUMN: Beyond layoffs, India emerges as creative-tech hub
Shift in hiring and AI-led workflows is reshaping global media and marketing
MUMBAI:The global narrative around layoffs in media and technology may suggest contraction, but a deeper transformation is reshaping how creative and tech capabilities are built and deployed. For Sanjil Zaveri, general manager – India at Brandtech+, this shift is less about decline and more about redistribution, one that is positioning India at the centre of a new global operating model. In this piece, Zaveri explores how integrated workflows, AI-powered production, and evolving talent demands are redefining the creative-tech ecosystem, why India is emerging as a strategic hub for global content and innovation, and what this means for the future of media, marketing, and talent.
The global headlines around layoffs in technology and media continue to dominate industry conversations. From platform restructuring to reduced marketing spends, the narrative suggests a slowdown across the creative and digital ecosystem.
But beneath these headlines, a different shift is underway, one that is quietly redefining how creative and technology work is delivered globally.
Hiring is not disappearing; it is being redistributed. And India is increasingly at the centre of this transition.
A structural shift in the creative-tech ecosystem
The media and marketing landscape is undergoing a fundamental reset. Brands today are moving away from fragmented agency models and siloed teams toward more integrated, agile structures.
Creative, technology, and media are no longer operating in isolation. Campaigns are now built through connected workflows, where ideation, production, and optimisation happen simultaneously.
This shift is forcing organisations to rethink where and how teams are built. Increasingly, the focus is on capability, speed, and scalability, rather than geography alone.
India’s emergence as a creative-tech hub
India’s role in this evolving ecosystem has expanded significantly.
Traditionally positioned as a backend execution market, India is now playing a far more central role in global campaign delivery. Teams based here contribute not just to production, but also to strategy, content development, and performance optimisation.
This is particularly relevant in a market where content velocity has increased dramatically. With the rise of digital platforms, OTT, and always-on marketing, brands require high volumes of creative assets without compromising on quality.
Industry insights from Ernst & Young point to India’s growing strength as a global content hub, while NASSCOM continues to highlight the scale and depth of the country’s digital talent pool. Together, these factors create a compelling case for India as a foundation for more efficient, integrated content ecosystems serving global markets.
A global company’s perspective on India
At Brandtech+, this shift is already shaping how we operate.
As a global organisation working across creative, marketing, and technology, our talent strategy is increasingly driven by capability rather than location. India has therefore become a key market for both scale and strategic talent.
In the first quarter of this year, we have significantly accelerated hiring in India across creative, technology, and operations roles, moving well ahead of plan and continuing to build strong momentum. We are actively hiring across multiple functions, with India playing a central role in delivering integrated creativetech solutions for global brands.
These signals reflect a broader change in how global companies view India, not as a delivery centre, but as a hub for connected creative, data, and technology capabilities.
“While much of the global narrative is centred on contraction, what we are seeing in India is a different kind of growth,” says Sanjil Zaveri. “As a global company, we are investing in talent that can work across creative, data, and technology, because that is where the future of marketing is headed.”
AI and the new content economy
Artificial intelligence is playing a critical role in enabling this transformation.
In today’s media environment, the demand for content has scaled exponentially. Brands are expected to create, adapt, and optimise creative assets across multiple platforms in real time. The scale of this demand would be difficult to sustain through traditional production models alone.
AI is helping make this possible.
Rather than replacing roles, AI is streamlining workflows, automating repetitive tasks, accelerating production timelines, and enabling faster experimentation. This allows creative and strategy teams to focus on higher-value outputs.
“AI removes the mundane and elevates the meaningful,” says Zaveri. “It allows teams to focus on ideas and storytelling, while technology drives efficiency.”
For media platforms and advertisers, this is redefining how campaigns are built, moving from linear production cycles to continuous, data-driven content creation.
What this means for media talent
For professionals across media, advertising, and digital, this shift is redefining skill requirements.
The traditional boundaries between creative, media planning, and technology are blurring. Content creators are expected to understand performance metrics. Media professionals are working more closely with data, platforms, and automation. Collaboration across disciplines is becoming a core skill.
This is creating demand for hybrid talent, professionals who can operate across disciplines and adapt to rapidly changing workflows.
India’s talent ecosystem is particularly well suited to this environment. With strong capabilities across content, design, engineering, and analytics, the market offers a unique combination of scale and versatility.
Importantly, global exposure is no longer tied to relocation. Professionals in India are increasingly working on international brands and campaigns, collaborating with teams across markets in real time.
Looking ahead: India at the centre of the reset
What we are witnessing today is not a temporary phase; it is a structural reset in the global creative-tech ecosystem.
Layoffs may continue to shape short-term narratives, but they do not capture where long-term growth is being built. That growth lies in new operating models, integrated workflows, and markets that can deliver both scale and innovation.
India is firmly at the centre of this transformation.
As global media and marketing organisations continue to evolve, India’s role will only become more critical, not as a support market, but as a strategic hub for content, creativity, and technology-led innovation.
The future of creative-tech will be defined by collaboration, speed, and adaptability. And increasingly, it will be shaped from India.
Note: The views expressed in this article are solely the author’s and do not necessarily reflect our own.
