Radio Netherlands gets Amitabh Srivastava on board

After a long-term presence in India with short wave and satellite radio broadcasts, Radio Netherlands Worldwide (RNW) is now eyeing both FM stations and multimedia websites. “Considering the rapid growth of the number of FM stations and multimedia platforms in India, we feel that it’s time now to reach Indian media organisations,” says Amitabh Srivastava, newly appointed country head, India.

RNW is the Dutch international public service broadcaster. Via radio, television and the Internet, RNW keeps millions of people informed weekly about developments in the Netherlands, Europe and the rest of the world in 10 languages.

RNW provides news, background and cultural programmes and is active 24 hours a day, seven days a week. In India, RNW doesn’t want to limit itself to just radio, but is looking beyond for strategic tie-ups with leading multimedia portals. “We don’t want to miss any of the leading websites, be it Indiatimes, Rediff or Yahoo! India. We are looking for a synergy with these portals creating content that embeds with their respective themes,” he says.

RNW already has offices in various locations such as Brussels, Benin, Curacao, Costa Rica, Jakarta and New York. It currently has partnerships with more than 3,000 media organisations, including USA National Public Radio, CBC in Canada, ABC in Australia and hundreds of local FM stations in Africa, North America, Latin America and Indonesia.

Srivastava has worked earlier with top media brands such as Times TV, MTV, BBC, TV Today and Walt Disney. He has worked in the senior management cadre for the last 17 years. He has been active in the TV, cable and satellite industry and he has handled ground distribution systems for several broadcasters in India and Asia. Srivastava has headed both the distribution and the marketing departments for BBC and Walt Disney in South Asia.