Mobility

August 25, 2006
Visual Radio A Contradiction in Terms, the Newest VAS?

Runa Mukherjee

NEW DELHI -- Radio Mirchi listeners can now ‘see what they hear’ with Visual Radio, a new music service that allows listeners to interact with their favourite radio station on their Nokia mobile phones for Hutch subscribers.

Naveen Chopra, Chief Marketing Officer, Hutch, Dilip Phadke, Director - Business Relations & Development, Corporate & Global Aaccounts, HP, A.P Parigi, Managing Director & CEO, Entertainment Network India Limited (ENIL) Radio Mirchi, Vineet Taneja, Director, National Operator & Retail Accounts, Nokia India and Kapil Jain, Vvice President, HP Services, HP India

Yes, it is a new music application that is available in the Nokia N-series mobile phones that allows listeners to tune in to local FM radio via the analog receiver on their devices while simultaneously receiving interactive information and graphics that are synchronised with the radio broadcast via the cellular data network onto the screen of the mobile device.

One can enjoy various content: visuals, information and entertainment of what’s playing over the air, purchase tones and other mobile content of the artiste, participate in radio station promotions, polls, contests and interact with radio jockeys and special guests.

On asking why this concept attracted the innovators, A.P Parigi, managing director and CEO of Entertainment Network India Limited (ENIL) Radio Mirchi said: “We are in an era when people want to know about things. The public today has a latent need to know and corporations have to supply what they want. Visual Radio is going to gratify that curiosity.”

If radio is audio, then how did this term originate?

“Visual Radio is a term enough to perk you up. Cinema is the first screen, television the second and mobile phones have come to be known as the third screen today.

Convergence is the need to communicate and to entertain oneself. Thus to make dead time come alive, this is going to be a very successful entertainment tool,” said Naveen Chopra, chief marketing officer, Hutch.

This new wave in radio mobile entertainment will be available in New Delhi at first and later, will be introduced to rest of the metros.

Parigi is happy that this technology came to India within two months of being introduced in other parts of the world. It had been introduced in Singapore, UK, Turkey and Spain before coming to India.

Kapil Jain, vice president, HP Services, HP India, said: “Since introducing the Visual Radio service, HP has worked with industry leaders like Radio Mirchi and Hutch to deliver Visual Radio to listeners around the world. We are looking forward to making this venture a great success.”

Speaking on the launch of the service, Vineet Taneja, director, national operator and retail accounts, Nokia India, added: “Visual Radio will make listening to the radio via your mobile phone a truly multi-dimensional experience. This will offer a host of new rich music services to Nokia users allowing them to indulge themselves at the click of a button.”

In a country where 54 percent of the population is under 26 years of age, the need to be entertained is the most important. Visual Radio will be the first of its kind in India where people can listen to songs and can read trivia about that song simultaneously. The customer will be charged at the regular Planet Hutch rate of 10 paise per 10KB while the regular downloading charges would apply for tones etc that are downloaded.

A feeling of indifference can occur for such a service because it doesn’t seem to be a necessary value addition for the mobile phone owners. Especially, when people can sms and download from their GPRS phones, it seems as if this service might take some time to pick up.

Naveen Chopra of Hutch believes otherwise. According to him, this service will pick up speedily as, “Earlier on, we were apprehensive about how much acceptance will sending sms get, but people caught on to sending smses like wild fire. Last month itself, we introduced the first full song download and that too has become a hit. So, its just a matter of time before this picks up.”

All the partners seemed to be in unison when asked why they chose the respective companies for a joint venture.

“It is a coming together of like-minded people to bring this convergence of technology. We are committed to making it easy for people to enjoy the music they want, on a single device that is always with them. As a part of this commitment, we have already launched more than 20 Nokia devices in India that are compatible with Visual Radio with still more to come in the future,” said Vineet Taneja of Nokia.

HP’s Kapil Jain agreed by saying, “We have done this in other parts of the world too but the Indian market is very important to us because it is a huge consumer base and thus, very lucrative.”

The success of this service will largely depend on the network, which must be highly efficient. Also, it will be based on the content that Radio Mirchi will provide.

Parigi of Radio Mirchi believes that while there is no exclusivity on such services, Radio Mirchi is fully confident about the content that it is going to deliver and promises to utilise the head start it has got over its counterparts.

The launch of such a service demonstrates a revolution in interactive mobile communications and redefines the experience of traditional FM radio, not only for the users but also for the broadcasters, advertisers and mobile operators. As for the ordinary FM listener, the music will be a visual treat now on.