Red FM hikes advertising rates

The radio network announced an increase in advertising rates by 20 per cent.

Red 93.5 FM has announced a 20 per cent increase in its advertising rates with effect from June 10 across all its stations in the country.

The earlier ad rates for its Delhi station was in the range of Rs 850-1000, and the rates in Mumbai were in the range of Rs 1000-1150. The ad rates vary in different cities and towns across the country.

Nisha Narayanan, COO, Red FM, says, "The rates have been constant for a very long time and it's time to take them up keeping in mind the inflationary pressures. The costs have been escalating northwards. As a result, increase in rates had become imperative. Inventory crunch due to heavy demand in most of the developed and emerging radio markets also made the rate increase inevitable."

Commenting on the increase, Renuka Iyer, national sales head, Red FM, says, "Most of our Tier II and III city stations are now a very strong and prominent local brand as we have been constantly investing on content and talent. A strong product backed by an efficient sales force has helped these markets to show volume growth in advertising also. The demand and supply situation requires that rates should be corrected to properly service brands and take them to the next level. Metro markets are overflowing with inventory utilisation and it's high time that we correct the demand-supply situation here, too."

Iyer adds, "Traditionally in metro markets we have been leaders in terms of both - popularity amongst listeners and popularity amongst advertisers. Now Tier 2 towns are also moving in that league. With the rising operational costs and inventory pressures, the rate increase was inevitable."

Red FM was launched in 2002, playing a mix of Hindi and English songs. However, the programming is now exclusively Hindi. The channel is owned by Sun TV Network. It was acquired from India Today promoter Living Media in January, 2006.

In August 2009, S FM or Suryan FM was re-branded into Red FM across 38 cities in India. S FM took over Red FM in August, 2009 and re-branded all its stations to Red FM except for the ones in Tamil Nadu.

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