Radio Netherlands expands in India, ties up with Incablenet

Radio Networks Worldwide (RNW), the international radio station from the Netherlands, is expanding its presence in India. It has tied up with Incablenet, the MSO owned by the Hinduja Group, through which the channel will be broadcast on its interactive radio service.

Incablenet has a reach in 6.5 million homes, while the radio service is available to about two million listeners on the digital cable network, Indigital. In an official communiqué, Ravi Mansukhani, managing director, Incablenet, says, “The radio industry is estimated to have grown at an impressive CAGR of 19.7 per cent over the year 2006-08 in India. Emergence of radio stations such as RNW could also help the industry in attracting new listeners and driving up overall radio listenership.”

Speaking to afaqs! about its expansion plans, Amitabh Srivastava, country manager, India, RNW, says, “When we came to India a year ago, we wanted to be on all platforms such as FM radio and the Internet. The digital cable service reaches a large number of people and we are in talks with other cable operators to expand our reach.”

RNW has already tied up with private FM stations such as Radio Misty, Radio Chaska and Power FM and is in talks with other FM stations, community and university radio.

The station mostly airs music programmes in English but Srivastava says that it is planning relevant content for India in Hindi and regional languages.

RNW has been around for 60 years and is available in 10 languages around the world through its media partners, satellite, short wave, the Internet and mobile.