New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s monthly radio address Mann Ki Baat on state-owned All India Radio (AIR) managed to garner advertisement revenue of Rs4.78 crore in 2015-16.

In a written reply in the Lok Sabha, minister of state for information and broadcasting Rajyavardhan Rathore said that AIR monetizes on the radio broadcast of Mann Ki Baat, but the show does not earn any ad revenue on digital platforms (AIR application). “Accordingly, the gross revenue generated via this programme during 2015-16 through advertisements is Rs4,78,22,480," he said in his reply.

Overall, AIR registered a revenue of Rs447.76 crore in 2015-16, up from Rs435.1 crore in 2014-15. Mann Ki Baat has also been visually adapted for telecast on Doordarshan channels.

Both AIR and Doordarshan are owned by public broadcaster Prasar Bharati.

So far, AIR has aired 26 episodes of Mann Ki Baat. The show was launched in October 2014 and AIR started monetizing on the show that December. “Mann Ki Baat majorly generates ad revenue from government ads. In 2014-15, we were able to generate close to Rs1 crore," said an AIR official, who did not wish to be identified.

According to the official, the broadcaster has designated a total of 7 minutes (5 minutes before the show and 2 minutes after the show) “for commercial revenue from Mann Ki Baat. We also air self-promotional advertisements in those seven minutes," the official added. AIR charges an ad rate of Rs2 lakh per 10 seconds of advertising for the PM’s radio address.

AIR currently operates a total of 419 stations across the country. Its overall network includes FM channels (FM Gold and FM Rainbow), local radio stations, Vividh Bharati stations and five community radio stations. AIR also extends to over 108 countries. The external services division of AIR covers these countries using 27 languages (15 foreign and 12 Indian).

AIR, which started as the Indian State Broadcasting Service, completed 80 years of operations earlier this June and had announced its plans to further expand the broadcast of Mann Ki Baat to several countries and in multiple languages, according to a Mint report dated 8 June. AIR currently covers about 92% of the area and 99.19% of the Indian population with its services in 23 languages.

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