Reliance ADAG's BIG 92.7 FM has partnered with VAS company OnMobile for it's platform mRadio to launch BIG Mobile Radio, which offering people a chance to listen to their favourite RJ and local radio station. "This is live streaming radio on mobile networks, not retransmission of the radio's channels," explained OnMobile CEO Arvind Rao. The reason lies in the way licenses are given to radio stations: they are specific to city, and from what we gather, it isn't among the license conditions to retransmit a radio channel in more than one city, in its entirety. So how have OnMobile and BIG FM dealt with this problem? Ad Free Radio & Music Rights It's a gray area when it comes to music rights on mobile: no one entity involved in the agreement owns all the music rights. "Mobile rights to music are given by content aggregators: usually operators have the licenses," OnMobile Global's COO Sanjay Uppal told MediaNama. OnMobile owns some licenses (through the agreements it closed for its mRadio product) and so both the VAS firm and the operators will have a combination of rights that they will use to deliver live music over BIG Mobile Radio. Radio channels by BIG FM will be 'specially programmed'. What the radio jockey speaks will be included but all the advertisements and sponsor messages that run on the radio will be removed. The BIG Mobile Radio service will be delivered through a voice portal, and users will have to dial a number and tune…
