Week 3: What are the best sources of revenue and how to diversify revenue?

Archived English Discussions Generating Revenue
#1

Hello everyone,

This is our third week of discussion on generating revenue. I hope you’re enjoying the experience so far!

This week we will look at the best sources of revenue and how to diversify revenue.

Please share your thoughts on the following questions:

  1. What sources of revenue does your farmer program currently rely on?
  2. Are there other ways you think you can generate revenue for your farmer program? Please explain.
  3. What challenges do you face trying to generate revenue?

It will be interesting to see what similarities and differences there are in our online community on this topic!

Please take a minute to read the following resource BH2 – How to generate revenue to support a regular farmer program

Enjoy your week!

1 Like
Eko Rich from Voice of lango Fm, Lira Uganda
#2

What sources of revenue does your farmer program currently rely on?

  • General adverts
  • Radio provides transport to the field and back to source material.

Are there other ways you think you can generate revenue for your farmer program? Please explain.

  • Marketing the program to potential sponsors through presentation of proposals to relevant companies
    detailing facts about the program and how the companies stand to benefit.
  • Packaging the program to attract partners and sponsors…this can be done by having revenue
    generation in mind when designing the content.

What challenges do you face trying to generate revenue?

  • Got a challenge of channeling client interest and funding from ordinary product adverts to sponsorship of
    agriculture program.
1 Like
#3

Hi Busi.

I will look at question 2 and 3.
How a farmer program can generate revenue.

  1. There is partnership. A company can partner by paying for airtime and in turn the presenter promotes it through talk shows. There is mutual benefit.
  • Through advertisers. They buy airtime for their products through classifieds and commercials or even promos and mentions.
  • Through sponsorships
    These are sponsors who support the program I.e they can enable producers to visit farms, facilitate forums etc.
  • Through development of farming app.
    Listeners can be encouraged to download the app for instant info.
  • Through sourcing from listeners
    A pay bill number can be provided so as farmers can be able to support the program.

Challenges

  • Most advertisers shy away from informational programs.
  • Most partnership do not last long. They do not go beyond 2 quarters.
  • With the economic crisis in my country, advertisers would rather do online marketing than engage a radio station.
  • Others prefer doing the marketing themselves in regions and marketing.
  • Some say it is cheaper on bill boards than radio.
  • Big advertisers would prefer televisions. Others say radio is loosing popularity since most households would rather watch than hear.
1 Like
#4

I am glad to be able to participate in the third week’s discussion about the best source of revenue and how to diversify them.
What resources of revenue does my farmer program currently rely on?
Well, sponsors - I have a five minutes’ slot in my farmers’ program which is about nutrition it is being sponsored by a Nutritional Foods Company (“Dama Nutrition Company”) since they sell their products to people - the farmers for that matter.
There is a company known as ‘Sure Deal’ another company which deals in natural cosmetics which also has a slot in the hours program.
Sponsorship in form of radio spots and adverts at the beginning, in the middle and at the end of the program.
2. Are there other ways you think you can generate revenue for your program? Please explain.

  • By programming: Packaging the program to the farmers’ and advertisers’ satisfaction can attract more sponsors.

  • Write and distrubute proposals to cooperatives/companies focusing on Corporate Responsibility, asking them to sponsor quizzes and contests prepared for farmers in the programs. These can come for talk shows in return for the gifts, products or cash they would have contributed.

  • Consistence - The radio station should never go off at any time. It should be on air all the time and if for anything such as power cuts, like mine which transmits in remote areas, there should be an automatic general to switch itself on the moment power goes off.
    What challenges do you face trying to generate revenue?
    i) Competition: Most sponsors happen to be soothe for by the may presenters from the more than 200 radio stations that we have in Uganda.
    ii) Most willing sponsors sell products and services for youth whose preference is far from being a farmers’ program.
    iii) The sponsorships and adverts are for a few months (3 to 6) and during that time those rivals who would have heard them would lobby them and take them to other stations.

3 Likes
#5

The best sources of revenue for radio can be classified into two, i.e Primary and secondary revenue sources;

The primary sources can be, good programming; if your programs are liked and listened to by a big audience, I can assure you that, it is one source of revenue that actually lasts longer. advertisers look for radio stations with big audience. They know that, part of your listeners could be their customers, so the best is to give you money and they tap into your audience.
Another source of revenue is wide coverage of your radio station. the advertisers always look for radio stations that can be able to take their message across wide audience. The two primary revenue sources help the station to generate income without spending more money on marketers.

Then the secondary sources of revenue include, the companies, business operators, governments, Ngo’s among others.These sources are attracted to do business with the radio station depending on the first primary factors.

It is very important to note that, for a radio station to diversify and sustain revenue sources, the radio station management should pay keen attention to programming and the technical issues that may affect coverage.
Also how the station handles the advertisers will determined how the revenue will be diversified. You can actually use different approaches to impress your advertisers without compromising your programming, by making some of them partners.

1 Like
#6

Week 3: What are the best sources of revenue and how to diversify revenue?

In Week 2 we covered “knowing your audience - how can you turn your listenership into money”. This week which is Week-3, our purpose and aim is to identify what are the best sources of revenue and how to diversify revenue. We are supposed to indicate /identify the sources of revenue that our farmer programs rely on currently as well as identifying other ways in which revenue for our farmers’ programs could be generated. At some point, we should share the challenges faced while trying to generate revenue.

Before any of our Stations can generate any money, there must be a “buy-in” by the listener of the following about the Station and namely;

  1. The Station – As A Body Corporate
  2. The Program Aspects
  3. The Personality of the Presenter

Before the above happens, there might be a huddle for the listener/audience to be converted into money.

  1. The Station – as a body corporate:

This will usually be exhibited in the following;
a) The Station Frequency
b) The Station Name
c) The Station Signature Tune
d) The Station Voice
e) The Station Program Style(s)
f) The Station Broadcast language
g) The Station Leadership

  1. The Program Aspects:
    This usually is exhibited in;

a. The program signature tune
b. The program name
c. The Program subject matter
d. The program objectives
e. The program style, type, pace & target audience
f. The nature of the program—Interactive or not?
g. The Language media that the program is conducted in

  1. The Personality of the Presenter:

The other “buy-in” is in relationship to the Presenter/Producer. For listeners to buy into the personality of the Presenter there should be the following;

a) Personality Appeal of the Presenter
b) The Technical Know-how of the program aspects by the presenter
c) A suitable Presenter voice that is warm and pleasant
d) Professionalism exhibited in knowledge, communication skills, dependability, trustworthiness, credibility and predictability .

At least any revenue generation effort shall be greatly enhanced by the above factors. For any radio program to generate revenue, the traditional Station Sound, Presenter Sound and Program Relevance must converge and create a common ground for a sale to happen.

It’s a pity though that despite the Presenter being at the fore front of the program planning and delivery, the same presenter neither has no clue as to how the program generates money nor is he/she willing to be the sales crusader for each of the programs on Air. The Presenter should be the Number One Sales Agent for their program because it’s expected that such presenters know a lot about each program.

Each presenter should be equipped with “selling skills” as well as, the Radio Technical Aspects to aid in the emergency of both the Station and Program sustainability.

The traditional unit of sale for a program is the Program Clock–.In here lies all the aspects that that attract revenue and i.e. The program slots each having a sponsor able item.

For a Farmer Radio Program, in each Program Clock the following revenue source ideas can be incorporated;

a) Farmer’s Quiz
b) Farming Clinic- (This could be both online and also in the field)
c) Farm Health Checks – As the Chief Farmer

The following could also be avenues through which more revenue could be generated for the Station.

When the Station spearheads;

d) Exhibitions that are agricultural in orientation
e) Harvest Expos & Farmers Market
f) Station sponsored Bazaars
g) Linking the Program to Listener Clubs
h) Strengthening the Listener Fan Club

The Body Corporate, The Program and the Presenter in the right mix should generate about 50% of what each program is capable of raising.
Thank You!

Denis Lindo
Resource Person
Farm Radio
Generating Revenue
E-Discussion-2018

1 Like
#7

Its another great point of discussion. I am really interested in knowing the various sources we can use to get funding for our farmer programmes. In the meantime, i would like to respond to the questions inline.

  1. What sources of revenue does your farmer program currently rely on?
    Our farmer programme currently does not have any sources of revenue but previously it used to rely on:
    • Adverts in the programme – Business houses especially agro business used to pay for advert slots in the farmer programme. Usually the adverts were one at the beginning, one at the end and one at the end.
    • Programme Grant – NGO could fully fund the production and broadcast of the programme but had conditions that their funding is used on topics within their interventions such as climate change agriculture or conservation farming.
    • Programme component sponsorship – NGO could sponsor a segment of the programme that relates to their work e.g. market prices.
  2. Are there other ways you think you can generate revenue for your farmer program? Please explain.
    Yes there other ways I think of:
    • Competitions and Awards – Business houses to do competitions and present awards relating to farming within the programme and pay for that segment.
    • Produced programme Sale – Selling of programmes that have messages that strongly support interventions for certain NGOs so that they give their farmers to play at any time
  3. What challenges do you face trying to generate revenue?
    I think the major challenge is convincing advertisers and funders to pay for the programme. I think we should include this in the discussion.
1 Like
#8

Week 3: What are the best sources of revenue and how to diversify revenue?

Below are my contributions to the questions asked for Week 3 question or topic.

  1. What sources of revenue does your farmer program currently rely on?
    Currently, my/our farmer programme/s does not / do not have a diversity of sources of revenue!

The only revenue we are depending on is the field interview and recording facilitation from our station. We normally write proposals and submit them to Finance and Administration Manager (FAM) who endorses and we are given the facilitation to go to the field to conduct interviews, record and or gather content. But this does not happen all the time that we submit proposals. When there is no money, we are not facilitated.

  1. Are there other ways you think you can generate revenue for your farmer program? Please explain.

Yes, there are other ways I can generate revenue for the farmer programme.

What I can say is; we are enlightened here in this eDiscussion on generating revenue for the programmes. So I have been encouraged to look for sources of revenue that can sustain the farmer programme that i do and through which I can get better content that can attract sponsors or advertisers.

However, below are some of the ways that I think I can use to generate revenue for the farmer programme.

• I can make an announcement that can air in the farmer programme and even other programmes; inviting NGOs, farmer groups and local governments to be part of the programme and have a stake in it. I can make a public announcement with nice and convincing promos for this. I can give contacts on which they can reach us to participate in the programme, after which they will be convinced to sponsor it.

• I can generate proposals as another way which I can submit to various organizations like One Acre Fund-an international organization that is supporting farmers in Eastern Uganda; I can submit a proposal to the many Agro- processing companies that support farmers and buy produce from the farmers they support and I can submit proposals to The National Agriculture Advisory Services (NAADS) Operation Wealth Creation that distributes the government farm inputs to the farmers in Uganda.

They normally use some remote radio stations to inform the farmers about the new seeds and in-puts they are to give in a season. Moreover, my station also covers those areas. I think I can approach them too.

• I can approach some industries/factories and other companies within the coverage of our radio station with proposals requesting them to contribute financially towards the purchase of things like T-shirts, caps and seedling companies can be approached to give coffee seedlings, fruit seedlings and banana suckers that we can take to some selected places or districts and give them out to the listeners who are farmers or audience as a way of motivating them to continue being part of our station. We take part and promote the station.

• In the same way; I can approach the industries that make water tanks, those with expertise to empower or train farmers on how to dig their own sources of water or water harvesting. This will help being that water is very essential in production and particularly in farming activities and yet scarce and needed to produce throughout the year!

Then we shall promote such companies which people can develop liking and like our station and remain listening. These companies can even sponsor us for our farmer programme.

• I can also encourage the audience or listeners to contribute to the programme and even collaborate with some groups that can mobilize others for this noble cause of contributing and sustaining the farmer programme with good content.

  1. What challenges do you face trying to generate revenue?

The following challenges have hindered my station and me personally to generate revenue.

• Too much competition from the many radio stations that are everywhere and yet the sponsors and advertisers normally want those remote and community based radio stations than the national stations like ours.

• The radio station being intermittent! For at least a bigger part of the decade, the radio is not reliable! The radio goes off any time because of the archaic transmitters and masts. The radio being that it lacks a financial muscle; it cannot maintain itself throughout. So it waits for government’s intervention, which government- takes time to allocate money to such. So the sponsors or advertisers cannot rely on a station that is always on-off. It has happened and we are told so.

• Inadequate or no facilitation for longer periods to enable the team in-charge of the farmer programmes to go to the field to interview and collect content for the progarmme. With no good content, the radio cannot be bought or no airtime can be sponsored! And it has happened to us frequently, so we have missed revenue.

• The nature of the radio station: My radio is government, so people associate it with the current ruling government which some people have developed a dislike! You find that even government ministries and departments have developed a dislike of the station!

• The traditional way of broadcasting is a very big challenge to me. The thinking/mind-set is that government has to give financial support which is not there. Even when it comes, it is inadequate and cannot solve all problems. It is just in the recent past that the station has also positioned itself to attract consistent sponsors or advertisers. But they are very few and pay little money.

Lastly, with this kind of training/discussion on Generating Revenue for our Framer Programmes, I will start off seriously and believe me; I will get sponsorship among the many diversified sources.

I wish you all fruitful deliberations.

1 Like
#9

Thank you Busi for the work and the resource you have sent here.

Regards,

Sarah Mawerere (smawerere)

#10

Thank you very much Denis for this rich info.

Regards,

Sarah Mawerere (smawerere).

#11

Hello everyone welcome to yet another beautiful week. Am Odongo Wendo Boniface from Uganda working with Shine FM Oyam District. Looking at the questions for this week!

  1. What sources of revenue does your farmer program currently rely on?

Looking at the current situation in agriculture and programming, there has been upset in climate change and other geographical settings leasing to poor production. This therefore tells that a farmer to get familiar with farm programs needs some experts to come on board telling them the benefits of agriculture / farming.

However, we are engaging our farmers to our farm programming with their contributions through call ins asking for any agricultural questions as the experts gives them the answers and good program packaging. This has helped a lot in making MUIIS an organization dealing with farmers to support / sponsor the farm programme and also the District production department through the district agricultural officer brings is a talkshow for the station to boost the farm programming at our station. Generally we depend on an organization and the district as sources of income.

  1. Are there other ways you think you can generate revenue for your farmer program? Please explain

I would say yes! Apart from sponsorship, Shine FM has a group of farmers who contributes little collection for the farm programme. Through that our farm programming is very strong with some farmers engaged themselves in sharing their experiences during the farm show and is a kind of giving back to farmers.

  1. What challenges do you face trying to generate revenue?

Primarily revenue/income comes from selling airtime and this can be inform of spot messages/adverts bit when the station coverage is not wide enough it affects income generation coz there will be no advertisers.

Lack of transport for the station is a big challenge for some stations in the rural settings which makes a subject matter to reaching the community.

Remote broadcast is a challenge to some radio station. Location of the station in hard to reach areas makes income generation very difficult

Lastly, Marketing in this case for a station to generate income there must be strong marketeers, this calls for serious motivation to the marketing teams so that good response is realised.

Wishing you well in discussion.

Wendo

#12

I am starting with @DenisLindo quote because this is one thing I have been championing since time immemorial. Most presenters are of the idea that they were employed to present so the selling aspect should be left to the Marketing Department which is resourced to do just that.

But they (presenters) have forgotten or sometimes I think do not know that they are the ‘face’ of their program/station and that listeners or potential advertisers see them as a reason to listen or advertise respectively.

You have hit the nail right on the head Denis. Thanks very much.

Frankly speaking, the farmer program which I was producing ‘‘AKUAFUO KYEFA’’ which literally means ‘The farmer’s Share’ has been taken off due to its inability to rake in the projected revenue. But that notwithstanding I am producing a segment on the Morning Show which is quite similar. Surprisingly we are generating more from the 10-minute segment than we were doing for the one-hour program.

What we rely on now aside from the normal advertisement spot is inculcating training sessions at the radio station’s premises. We invite facilitators or trainers to take farmers through the basics of Rabbit farming and Mushroom cultivation. The farmers pay Ghc100 ($22.00) for one and Ghc150 ($34.00) for both. The facilitators are paid an agreed sum and the rest goes into the coffers of the program. We have about 500 farmers who have subscribed to this.

What we have also done to increase interest is that we have designed a generic jingle talking about the health benefits of consuming rabbit and mushroom which we play daily. So there is a market booming for the products (Mushroom bread and rabbit steak / khebab).

My challenge that time (when I was producing the one-hour program) was the advertising package. Since the program was on a weekend, most of the slots given were only on weekends with just a few on weekdays so advertisers were not getting the mileage and that lead to them leaving after contract expiration.

Government agencies (Ministry of Food and Agriculture) and the likes only advertise when there is a national program so you cannot really rely on that.

#13
#14

I think you have great ideas Martin. The question that keeps on coming in my head is from Uganda, 300 radios, 10 in one province. I think remaining important, relevant and faithful to your target group while unique can make you generate cash. We have this Ugandan Lady who does her WhatsApp short films, do you know that those films reach Malawi? people are willing to download them. So possibilities are many but we need to be courageous.

#15

Hi Moderators,
My thoughts on this week’s topic:

1.We currently rely on Radio advertisement and support from farmers group, and at times from the district.
2.
Holding farmers expo where Farmers and groups can pay little money.
Partnerships with NGOs so that they offer support to agriculture program
Writing proposal to willing organisation or government agencies to support Farm program.
3. Competition with other Radio stations for the few available organization willing to give money for service delivery
We have subsistent farmers who are less supportive to media, they have the mindset that only NGOs can support local media.
Limited access to Internet

#16

Jaspher,
I would love if you could explain more on your points. For example the first one, do you mean you run adverts in the farmer programme and also do you mean farmer groups pay money for production and broadcast of your farmer programme. how about farmer export, do you mean entry fees to the expo or how? I can say your points are very good be needs more meat for me to actionalise them.

#18

Mungwisagye,
Your challenge is similar to our challenge. Its hard to convince advertisers to advertise in the farmer programme. They prefer what the call prime time and this is close to news time. So we have to find ways of convincing them that the times of the farmer programme have high listenership.

#19

Wengo,

You wrote "
Through development of farming app.

Listeners can be encouraged to download the app for instant info.
Through sourcing from listeners

A pay bill number can be provided so as farmers can be able to support the program.
"

I would like to find out which apps you meant and on which types of phones they run on. Also do most farmers in your area have phones to run the apps and can easily use them. And on the pay bil number, do you mean like a short code number where the proceeds to this call number are shared between the owner of the number and the line provides? let me know and understand. Otherwise i think the pay bill number can help to bring in something because in my area, farmers like calling to the programmes.

#20

I like it and will copy your idea of packaging the programme in such a way that sponsors can support just a component that is in line with what they do.

#21

Thanks Martin,
There are these Farm inputs dealers who pay for advert and DJ Mentions with bias toward farmers program, meaning they prioritize farmers program for their schedules, secondly, organised farmers group do contract Radio and pay for the service especially when they are doing Farm documentary because they know how important it is to have uninterrupted program and steering the group to better deals.
With expo many companies and organisations are wooed thus apart from Entry fee, i see that they(big companies /farmers will be motivated and attracted to other farmers thereby to maintain the contacts, they are most likely to support the farmers program so that they are intact with the farmers.