MUMBAI: Even as mobile dominates the VAS domain today, content aggregators are exploring newer platforms for their services to provide smart solutions to companies and consumers. One of the leading providers of VAS – Techzone – is looking at focussing more on radio as a new VAS domain.

In an attempt to boost VAS revenues, apart from music labels and TV channels, the company has now partnered with radio stations to develop various SMS, IVR and WAP based products. While they have tied up with broadcasters like India TV, ABP, PTC News and NDTV, the list seems to be increasing on the radio front with Hello FM, Chennai Live, Radio City and now Radio Mirchi.

Techzone has partnered with each station for a period of two years; they recently renewed their partnership with Hello FM for another two years and also associated with Radio Mirchi. With the focus being on radio, the company is laying its bets on big players like Mirchi and City. The association with Mirchi is still in the integration stage and will take around a week to start off. On the other hand, regional players Hello FM and Chennai Live have helped them to gauge the feedback and consumer response to move ahead.

Each player has been provided short code in terms of running a contest, poll, quiz, feedback and more. They are also providing popular programs on radio channels by enabling listeners to dial a particular IVR code and listen or download on mobile. Their aim is to ensure that the available bandwidth is utilized and smarter solutions are being offered.

Speaking with Radioandmusic.com, Techzone MD Naveen Bhandari said, “Radio has always been on our cards for around two to three years now. The industry had to evolve with media channels using the promotional tool to generate revenues. We already have the existing bandwidth and reach; and it makes sense for them to use it to reach out to consumers. Our aim is to keep things simple and make radio channels interactive.”

Trying to further increase interactivity, Techzone has come up with another initiative where the songs, which are playing on radio, will have the option to be downloaded as Hello Tunes. It is available across all telcos and priced as per their offering. The option is presently available on Radio City and is stated to extend to other players in the near future.

Amongst other initiatives, they are also developing full track downloads, 3G services and more.

Currently, radio comprises of a very minimum share of the total VAS pie and is not even ensuring substantial returns for Techzone and the radio players largely. But being a pull based service; Bhandari expects it to increase to around 4-5 per cent of the total VAS pie in the future.

“I can’t say about Techzone, but for the radio channels and media houses, it is not proportionate to what they are expecting. There will be substantial returns for Techzone in the future. Currently, we are battling with adaptation of technology, making it available and penetrating. So we are still innovating and only the basic integration is done until now,” he added.

Inspite of the shortcomings, the company believes that it is very important for radio stations to adopt mobile VAS. “The format that they have been following from the past few years has not seen an inclusion of anything innovative except for programming innovations. To prevent its death, they have to keep adapting to new age technology. It only helps them add value to the basic principal core service,” he opined.

Thus, Techzone is now aiming to expand its association to other regional and national players as well so that adopting mobile into the space automatically converts it into an interactive medium. However, the main challenge is the promotion to return on investment that is happening. If a radio station invests around 10 seconds of their program 10 times a day, it could typically earn around Rs 40,000-50,000 vis-a-vis currently what they earn from mobile which is bare minimum.

Forecasting the future of radio on VAS, Bhandari said, “If radio stations open their arms, I have no doubt it can easily jump to 200 per cent per annum. It will witness certain jumps to reach a peak and then plateau down to a certain level.”

Today, extensive usage of VAS services is being witnessed on news channels followed by Hindi GECs. Companies are now moving onto the mobile platform through apps, SMS and IVR which is gaining equal popularity as on TV or radio. According to Bhandari, in the future, it is expected that the TV channel penetration will go down and mobile penetration will increase.

There is a developing story happening today. The TRAI implementation of double confirmation on mobile had a catastrophic effect in terms of revenue and services being offered to the consumers. It has created confusion amongst the customers and is resulting in losses to the service providers. Due to this, the subscriber revenue from VAS has been falling month on month since November 2012. It has witnessed a 40 per cent drop in the last six months and could further drop by around 20 per cent over the next two- three months.