Airtel Launches iRadio With 21 Radio Channels For DTH Subscribers

Airtel digital TV, the direct-to-home (DTH) service by telecom major Bharti Airtel, has launched iRadio – a 24/7 entertainment application that has 21 radio channels available to all its customers, at no additional cost.

The 21 audio channels on iRadio include FM Gold, FM Gold Mumbai, FM Rainbow, FM Rainbow Bangalore, FM Rainbow Chennai, Radio Kashmir, Gyanvani Radio, AIR Hindi, AIR Punjabi, AIR Tamil, AIR Telugu, AIR Bangla, AIR Gujarati, AIR Urdu, AIR Marathi, AIR Kannada, AIR Oriya, AIR Malayalam, AIR Assamese, AIR Ragam, and AIR North-East.

iRadio is yet another compelling reiteration of DTH's clear advantage over analogue systems in offering unique non-channel content across genres like education, music, movies, farming and lifestyle, according to the firm.

Shashi Arora, CEO- DTH/ Media, Bharti Airtel, said, "iRadio will provide yet another reason for customers to be on Airtel digital TV. Our non channel content has been very well received, one of the reasons we believe that the Radio application will find appeal across the hinterland of the country where radio is still considered the primary entertainment medium for many, who are only now being introduced to DTH and its advantages over legacy distribution systems."

All Airtel digital TV DTH customers can access this application by clicking the iTV button on their remote. The customers also have an option to select an AIR channel and play in the background.

iRadio is now available along with the other five offering iFasal(provides farmers a real time access to crop prices, prevalent agri-input prices of say seeds, pesticides, weather information and localized farming advisory in Hindi), iGoodlife (provides content on lifestyle, cooking, health, home and family), iDarshan (showcases live aartis every morning and evening, devotional songs, debates, discussions, pravachans, satsangs, discourses, travel episodes from shrines across the country and pilgrimage information, at your home), iLearn (interactive and fun tutorial for children ranging from classes 1 to 5) and iAstro (provides detailed forecast for the day – both as per astrology and numerology).

Airtel digital TV, that launched its services in October 2008, has over 6.8 million customers and is one of the half dozen DTH service operators in the country.