Prashant Panday, ED & CEO - ENIL, tells Pavan R Chawla there's no trend in Mirchi's dropping ratings,  and is confident it will recover its position on the back of corrective initiatives already taken.

What do you attribute the drop in Radio Mirchi's ratings per RAM?  Too much inventory full up and testing listeners' patience; even loyalty? Perhaps something forced by marketers' last ditch Q4 spends? Do you feel your inventory was overfull?

Not at all! Mirchi inventory levels have always been the lowest in the industry because we have capped our inventory at 16 mins; usually, it runs at lower levels. We manage this by keeping pricing correct... we never discount our product.

This week's debacle in Mumbai is certainly a worry area, and we will bounce back. We know what went wrong and we have corrected it four weeks back itself. The future results should see us recovering our position.

In Delhi also, it's a temporary blip and largely related to absence of one jock for 4-6 weeks, but he's back on air now, and we hope to climb back. We also have exciting product changes in the pipeline.

In Bangalore actually, we are now joint #1 -- we have been so for the last 4 weeks now, but we don't make noise about small victories. We are waiting for a clear lead to emerge in Bangalore, and we are sure that will happen, because Bangalore's gain has also happened on the back of key programming efforts.

What do you believe are the reasons for the drop in Mumbai and Delhi?

Obviously I cannot share our evaluation of the reasons. Some of it is to do with the seasonal drop of radio listenership due to exams, and usually the market leader loses the most. There are a few other factors we have identified.

What was your entertainment: advertising mix on Mirchi on an average over Jan '10 to Jan '11?

We never go beyond 16 minutes of advertising. Only during Diwali season, we increase it to 18 minutes, when the competition runs at 25 minutes. There has been no change in this policy this year also.

And what was that ratio over Feb '11 to date?

There's been no change in the FCT time. However, on account of some promotions, the total music time had reduced.

How will you increase TSL on Mirchi in Mumbai and Delhi? Yes, these are just a week's ratings, and Mirchi has been a robust market leader in most of its markets. But having said that, what Mirchi has been losing, the competition has been gaining, whatever the quantum. What might disturb you is the fact that it seems to be becoming a trend...

There is no trend here. All through the last two years when we have been Number One in Mumbai, there have been 3-4 weeks when we have gone down, but it's always reversed. We have a team that keeps a hawk eye on these trends, and that's the reason we have always climbed back. I see no difference this time.

Also, since radio listenership is now very high -- the latest RAM baseline study shows it at about 80% of population -- one station's loss is bound to be another station's gain. That's the usual pattern. In Mumbai however, we have seen that Mirchi's drop has led to the market's drop. This means our listeners have left the category; and not migrated to competition. We have plans to get them back.

Here's a thing you may want to remember: in any weekly research system, a few weeks' blip is nothing to worry about. It happens all the time. One cannot take that too seriously.

You dropped 2% share there this week, but how did you achieve the excellent performance in Bangalore, where you were joint market leader with market leader BIG FM last week?

In Bangalore actually, we are now joint #1 -- we have been so for the last 4 weeks now, but we don't make noise about small victories. We are waiting for a clear lead to emerge in Bangalore, and we are sure that will happen, because Bangalore's gain has also happened on the back of key programming efforts  Many programming changes... a new leader... a new vigor!