Radio’s Horizon: Adapting to the Digital Age in India

Radio in India has survived the transistor era, the television boom, and now faces its most complex test yet – the digital age. With over a billion smartphones in circulation and internet data costs among the lowest in the world, the way Indians consume audio content is shifting fast. Yet radio has not gone silent. It has adapted, evolved, and in many corners of the country, it remains the only reliable voice people can access. The question is no longer whether radio will survive digitization – it’s whether the right policies, technologies, and political will are in place to help it thrive.

India’s radio landscape today: a three-way ecosystem 🔗

India’s radio broadcasting system operates through three distinct pillars: All India Radio (AIR), private FM stations, and community radio stations. Each serves a different audience, operates under different mandates, and faces its own set of challenges in the digital era.

AIR, now operating under Prasar Bharati, runs 591 broadcasting centres, covers nearly 92% of India’s geographical area, and broadcasts in 23 languages and 182 dialects. On the commercial side, 388 private FM radio stations were operational as of March 2025, alongside 531 community radio stations out of 639 permissions issued. Together, these three segments collectively reach over 90% of India’s population – a feat no other medium has matched.

Private FM: the engine of commercial radio’s digital push 🔗

Private FM channels have become the most commercially aggressive segment of Indian radio. Since liberalisation opened the FM spectrum to private players in 2000, the sector has grown into a multi-hundred crore advertising industry. Private FM radio stations reported advertisement revenue of ₹1,818.71 crore in 2024-25, underscoring how deeply embedded these stations are in India’s urban media economy.

Stations like Radio Mirchi, Big FM, and Fever FM have invested in digital infrastructure, listener analytics, and social media integration to stay relevant with younger audiences. Interactive formats – using WhatsApp polls, app-based requests, and real-time social media engagement – have extended the reach of radio beyond the traditional broadcast window. Podcasting has also emerged as a natural companion to FM programming, giving stations a way to serve listeners who prefer on-demand content.

However, expansion comes with friction. In August 2024, the Union Cabinet approved 730 new FM channels across 234 previously uncovered cities and towns, a move meant to deepen localisation and reach. But industry players remain wary. As the COO of Big FM noted, the sector faces major hurdles including high costs, limited access to digital radios, regulatory uncertainty, and competition from streaming platforms. The sector’s dependence on a single revenue stream – advertising – makes every additional licensing cost or infrastructure investment a difficult calculation.

Digital radio rollout: opportunity meets obstacle 🔗

India’s shift to digital radio broadcasting is both imminent and contested. The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting announced plans to roll out digital FM radio broadcasting in 13 major cities, a move designed to modernise the sector and optimise spectrum efficiency.

On the technical standards front, the debate centres on two options: Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM) and HD Radio. AIR has already adopted DRM for medium-wave and shortwave broadcasts, with 41 high-power DRM transmitters installed across the country. The DRM standard’s key advantage is that it requires no additional hardware in mobile phones that already have analogue FM tuners – making it potentially more affordable for mass adoption. Around 1.3 crore cars on Indian roads already come with DRM integrated into their entertainment systems, demonstrating a quietly growing ecosystem.

But adoption at the consumer level remains sluggish. The scarcity of affordable DRM receivers has impeded broader consumer uptake, even as AIR has made technical progress. As one industry expert pointed out, consumers already control their in-car audio experience through Bluetooth and mobile apps – there is little incentive to buy a dedicated digital radio receiver. The government has yet to mandate FM chips in smartphones or digital radio capability in cars, which industry bodies like the Association of Radio Operators for India (AROI) see as a critical missing piece.

Digital radio broadcasting offers the ability to transmit three to four channels on a single frequency carrier, compared to just one under analogue FM. This multi-channel capability could unlock new content possibilities – regional language streams, data services, emergency alerts – on the same spectrum. But broadcasters stress that without policy clarity, no one will invest in the transition.

Community radio: the grassroots voice that policy must not ignore 🔗

While private FM competes for urban ears and AIR navigates bureaucratic inertia, community radio quietly serves the India that mainstream media routinely overlooks. The number of community radio stations grew from 140 in 2014 to 481 by 2023 – a more than threefold increase – reflecting genuine grassroots demand for hyper-local media.

On World Radio Day, February 13, 2024, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting introduced revised policy guidelines for community radio stations, permitting eligible organisations operating across multiple districts to establish up to six stations in different locations. The permission agreement term was also extended to ten years, a signal that the government recognises the need for long-term stability in this sector.

Community radio’s strength is its irreducible localness. Stations like Radio Mewat in Haryana, Radio Bundelkhand in Madhya Pradesh, and Sangham Radio in Telangana broadcast in local dialects and address issues – farming techniques, water conservation, women’s rights, health schemes – that no national broadcaster has the bandwidth or contextual knowledge to cover. With roughly 70% of India’s population living in rural areas, community radio plays a significant role in bridging the communication gap that mainstream media consistently leaves open.

Yet community radio operates under conditions that can undermine its potential. Funding is precarious, content production capacity is limited, and regulatory restrictions on advertising and sponsorship – meant to keep stations non-commercial – can paradoxically starve them of the resources needed to sustain quality programming. Policy guidelines on who can sponsor and who can fund these stations need to be revisited if the government genuinely wants them to become sustainable, according to practitioners in the field.

Rejuvenating AIR: the need for political will 🔗

Of all the segments, AIR’s digital future carries the highest stakes – and the most inertia. As India’s public service broadcaster, AIR has an unmatched geographic reach and a vast archive of regional language content that no private player can replicate. But its transformation has been slow, burdened by outdated infrastructure and the complexity of coordinating reforms across multiple government ministries.

Some steps have been taken. AIR’s mobile app now offers live streaming and on-demand access to programmes. The digitisation of its audio archives is creating content libraries with long-term educational and cultural value. The National Broadcasting Policy, initiated by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, aims to define a structured future for the sector – and the TRAI’s extensive consultation process through 2023 and 2024 has laid groundwork for a more coherent digital policy framework.

Still, the pace of change at AIR falls short of what the digital moment demands. Prime Minister Modi’s Mann Ki Baat – a monthly programme broadcast on AIR in multiple languages – demonstrates radio’s continued capacity to reach remote populations at scale, having completed 130 editions. But one programme’s success does not substitute for the institutional modernisation AIR needs. The organisation requires not just better technology but a clear mandate, adequate budget, and the political commitment to transform public broadcasting into a genuinely competitive digital platform.

Radio’s role in bridging the digital divide 🔗

India’s digital expansion has been dramatic. Internet subscribers grew by 279% between 2014 and 2024, rising from 251.59 million to 954.4 million, and mobile data costs have fallen to under ₹10 per GB. Yet the digital divide has not closed – it has merely shifted. Many of the people who remain offline or under-connected are precisely the rural and marginalised communities that radio has historically served best.

This is where radio’s future case is strongest. During the COVID-19 pandemic, students in rural Bihar, Jharkhand, and parts of Madhya Pradesh relied on AIR’s educational broadcasts when schools were closed and digital access was limited. In border areas, the Indian Army launched dedicated FM stations – including India’s first community radio station along the Line of Control, Radio Sangam 88.8 FM in Rajouri – underscoring radio’s continued strategic and social importance.

Radio also remains irreplaceable during emergencies. When electricity grids fail, mobile networks go down, and internet connectivity collapses, a battery-powered or hand-cranked radio receiver still works. No other medium offers that combination of resilience, reach, and accessibility – especially for the rural poor who cannot afford smartphones or sustained data plans.

Innovation and policy: what needs to happen next 🔗

For radio to remain genuinely relevant in India’s digital future, a convergence of innovation and policy reform is required across all three segments.

On the technology front, mandating FM and DRM digital reception capability in all mobile phones and car entertainment systems is a critical step that the government has been urged to take by engineers, broadcasters, and regulators alike. Without device-level access, digital radio cannot achieve the mass reach that justifies the investment in transmitter infrastructure.

For private FM, lighter regulation, GST rationalisation, and the de-linking of one-time entry fees from recurring operational costs would give stations the financial breathing room to invest in digital content and delivery. For community radio, the funding model must be re-examined so that non-commercial stations can access sustainable revenue without compromising their editorial independence.

For AIR, the path forward is both technological and cultural. It means building a genuinely competitive digital platform, investing in its audio archives, expanding multilingual streaming, and shedding the institutional caution that has slowed its modernisation. The DRM standard’s multi-channel, power-efficient, spectrum-friendly features make it particularly well-suited to India’s broadcasting geography – but its benefits will only be realised if there is a clear, time-bound policy announcement backed by real political will.

Radio’s resilience over nearly a century is not accidental. It is a medium that has consistently found ways to serve people across geography, language, and income – and those qualities make it more relevant, not less, in a digital era that still leaves hundreds of millions behind.

What do you think? As digital streaming platforms continue to pull urban audiences away from traditional FM, can community radio fill the gap for rural India – or does it need a fundamentally different policy framework to do so? And given AIR’s vast reach and language diversity, what would it take for it to become a truly competitive digital public broadcaster in the next decade?

References

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9. https://www.radioworld.com/columns-and-views/guest-commentaries/radio-helps-bridge-the-information-gap-in-rural-india
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