Broadcasting A Sweet Music To Investors

Yogesh Supekar & Lohit Bharambe tunes into the FM station run by Music Broadcast Limited and then goes through its numbers, from its earnings to profitability and then he files this report for the reader-investors of DSIJ.

Music Broadcast Ltd (MBL), subsidiary of Jagran Prakashan Ltd (JPL), is the first and the oldest private FM broadcaster in India with over 15 years of expertise in the radio industry. MBL operates its radio stations under the brand “Radio City”. The company has presence in 37 cities and operates 29 radio stations through the 'Radio City' brand. Almost eight radio stations are operated through 'Radio Mantra' .

MBL is present in 12 out of the top 15 cities by population, in India. The company also operates online web radio “Planet Radio City”. MBL has 40 web radio stations and to allow access to content on the go the company has a ‘Planet Radio City’ mobile app.

In Dec 2014, Jagran Prakashan entered the radio segment by acquiring Music Broadcast Pvt Ltd. Jagran Prakashan acquired Music Broadcast Pvt Ltd from private equity firm, India Value Fund Advisors and Star Group. Star Group is a part of the Rupert Murdoch controlled 21st Century Fox.

As on Feb 2017 MBL has grown its presence from 4 cities in 2001 to 37 cities. The company networks its radio stations located at different cities and operate it from a single hub. MBL derives its revenue purely from radio air time sales which are categorised into fixed commercial time (“FCT”) and non-fixed commercial time (“Non- FCT”).

In FY16, national clients contributed around 55% to the revenue & local clients contributed 45% to the total.

The key sectors which advertise on the company’s radio stations are Government/PSU, media, consumer products, e-commerce, real estate and finance.

Radio industry

The media and entertainment industry in India consists of television, print media, films, radio, music, OOH, animation and VFX, gaming and digital advertising.