[HCDX] All India Radio maintains its status as world's largest network

["Alokesh Gupta" <alokeshgupta@xxxxxxxxx>]

All India Radio maintains its status as world's largest network

Monday, 05 May , 2008, 16:40
New Delhi: Despite financial and infrastructural constraints, the reach of
the All India Radio (AIR) is far greater than other private channels, and it
is the world's largest network.
AIR FM channels cover 23 per cent of the area and 31 per cent of the
population, whereas private FM channels cover only 3.3 per cent of the area
and 9.3 per cent of the population, says a Prasar Bharati report.
Even after the completion of phase two, private FM would cover only 9.0 per
cent of the area and 21 per cent of the population. Moreover, the report
says, private FM channels were city centric, so the entire rural areas were
deprived of their services, and AIR was the only radio service reaching
them.
At present AIR has 23 stations and 361 transmitters, which is the largest
network in the world, covering 91.42 per cent of the population.
The report pointed out that after the advent of the Prasar Bharati, the huge
AIR network was increasingly being constrained in terms of critical
resources and inputs such as programmes, establishments, latest equipment
and maintenance, among others.
These problems have arisen due to limited budget grant and acute staff
shortage, as there has not been fresh recruitment for many years.
One constraint has arisen out of the role of AIR as public broadcaster as it
has kept away from pure entertainment programming, which brings hefty amount
as commercial revenue, the report said. However, the growth of radio
advertising in the current year has been projected to exceed 50 per cent
because of two factors - social marketing and retail marketing, it said.
AIR, which started its operations in 1927, broadcasts in 24 languages and
146 dialects. In External Services, it covers 27 languages including 16
foreign and 11 Indian languages.

http://sify.com/news/fullstory.php?id=14667125

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Alokesh Gupta
New Delhi

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