Visual Radio Ahead of its Times?

Is India ready for visual radio? With the service - personalized radio requests with video clips on mobiles - yet to find many takers, a vigorous marketing campaign is set to popularize this paid service.

Radio Mirchi, India’s largest private radio network, launched visual radio in July in Delhi with Hewlett Packard and Nokia. A connection with Hutch (Hutchison Essar Limited) or Airtel along with General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) -enabled mobiles enable the reception of visual signals.

However, potential listeners are unsure about receiving value for money. College girl Jasmine has a GPRS-enabled phone that can easily pick up the service, but she is yet to tune in.
“I am frankly not interested. When I feel like it, I shall think of using the facility,” she said.

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With GPRS-enabled mobile phones not too common and many people ignorant about how to turn the visual radio features on, it is a long road ahead for the service providers hoping to woo clients. However, the venture partners have launched a vigorous marketing campaign extolling the virtues of visual radio. Radio Mirchi sources said though visual radio penetration is 10 percent in Delhi and six-seven percent in Mumbai, much still needs to be done.

“The initial response to the service has been encouraging in terms of accessing information, interacting with the radio station through the service as well as commercial downloads,” A.P. Parigi, CEO of Entertainment Network India Limited - a subsidiary of the Times Group - that owns Radio Mirchi, told IANS.

Visual radio is already launched in Finland, Singapore, Spain, Britain, the US, Thailand and Turkey. In 2003, Nokia had announced visual radio as an upcoming feature of their new range of multi-media phones.The content is created entirely by Radio Mirchi, HP provides the technology solution, Nokia produces the sets on which visual radio is made available and Hutch provides the conduit for the content to reach the subscriber through the GPRS network.

With this, listeners of Radio Mirchi can receive visuals on their mobile sets, plus information on the songs being played, choose ring tones and also content on the artistes, participate in radio station promotions, polls and contests. Besides, they can interact with radio jockeys and special guests.

Radio Mirchi, which launched its first radio station in Indore in October 2001, now operates in nine more cities - Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Jaipur, Ahmedabad and Pune. It is currently in the process of setting up radio stations in 22 other cities.

“We are completely committed to making it easy for people to enjoy the music they want on a single device that is always with them. As part of this commitment, we have already launched more than 20 Nokia devices in India that are compatible with visual radio,” said Vineet Taneja, a director with Nokia India, during the launch here earlier.

Naveen Chopra, the chief marketing officer of Hutch, said: “Visual radio is the first of its kind being offered in India, creating an enjoyable experience for our customers. This launch reinforces our commitment to be at the forefront of innovation in music-related services.”