MUMBAI: Advertising has been a topic of discussion among the radio industry peeps. While radio does get advertising, the amount of money invested in this medium is comparatively less than other mediums like television and print. BIG FM CFO Asheesh Chatterjee recently gave solutions to increase advertising on radio.

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Commenting on advertising on radio and what can be done to change the scenario, Chatterjee said, “Advertising has been growing. We are still around 3 to 4% of the total AdEx. If radio reach is improved, radio measurement is brought in, radio content plurality is addressed and the number of radio frequencies in top urban cities is doubled or tripled, you will see this 4% increasing to 10%. But, if you don’t choose to do so, there is no reason, why this 4% will drastically change.”

Asheesh Chatterjee had earlier called All India Radio’s decision to make available All India Radio news to private FM stations – a baby step.

“Although, we are looking at it as a positive change and we will see if we can do top and tail programming and see if there are advertisers and audiences wanting that kind of content. So, that’s a call that is yet to be taken,” Chatterjee told.

Asheesh Chatterjee also revealed about BIG FM’s recent broadcast of budget news as he said, “We did broadcast budget news during the budget day to gather some initial responses, but we would still urge the government to kind of look at easing these restrictions,” Chatterjee told about

“First and foremost, even if the news source has to be AIR, the least that can be done is the sound stationality can be BIG FM so that it doesn’t change the fabric of our content,” he suggested when it comes to easing restrictions on broadcasting AIR news.

Lastly, on being asked about any new BIG FM station launch, BIG FM CFO Asheesh Chatterjee concluded, “There are no auctions as of now so I cannot comment on the same.”

Meanwhile, Chatterjee’s pointers on increasing advertising on radio are worth taking note of!