Worldspace Satellite Radio (NASDAQ: WRSP), one of the world leaders in satellite-based digital radio services, today announced that it has formed strategic partnerships with two of India’s largest music retail chains – Planet M and Music World, extending its retail reach through 59 premium music stores located in nine cities across the country. Under the terms of these agreements, Worldspace will showcase and sell its subscription satellite radio service and its products. Worldspace delivers over 40 channels of diverse music genres and entertainment to music lovers throughout the country and beyond.

Through these sales and marketing alliances Planet M and Music World will create “shop-in-shop” spaces for Worldspace with branded kiosks to present customers a taste of the Worldspace experience, showcasing the widest variety of uninterrupted, digital quality radio entertainment. Worldspace will also place “In Store Demonstrators” at all the locations, who will assist in marketing the service to customers. The Worldspace “shop-in-shop” retail points will be located in 34 Planet M outlets and 25 Music World outlets in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Kolkata, Pune, Chandigarh, Hyderabad, and Ahmedabad.

Worldspace India managing director Shishir Lall said, “We are delighted to partner with these premier music destinations to reach music lovers across the country. Planet M and Music World have revolutionized the retail music industry in India by creating ‘the’ destinations for music shoppers across the country. The alliance will help us further engage our target audience and extend our market presence through the powerful Planet M and Music World brands.

“By tapping into their loyal customer bases, Worldspace can create a more comprehensive appreciation for the unique value proposition our service offers. ”

Times Retail CEO Ajay Mehra said, “Planet M and Worldspace is a synergistic partnership and has good brand fit and relevance to both our customers. At Planet M, we offer the world of music under one roof and with this alliance, we now extend the experience of the path-breaking satellite radio technology to our customers.”

RPG Retail president – books & music S K Chowdhury said, “Both Music World and Worldspace offer music lovers a wide range of music genres, performers and the latest hits. This partnership will enable us to offer our customers a taste of the Worldspace experience which is in line with our mission of presenting a complete musical experience at our stores.”

About Worldspace, Inc.

Worldspace is the world’s only global media and entertainment company positioned to offer a satellite radio experience to consumers in more than 130 countries with five billion people, driving 300 million cars.Worldspace delivers the latest tunes, trends and information from around the world and around the corner. Worldspace subscribers benefit from a unique combination of local programming, original Worldspace content and content from leading brands around the globe including the BBC, CNN, Virgin Radio UK, NDTV and RFI. Worldspace’s satellites cover two-thirds of the globe with six beams. Each beam is capable of delivering up to 80 channels of high quality digital audio and multimedia programming directly to Worldspace Satellite Radios anytime and virtually anywhere in its coverage area. Worldspace is a pioneer of satellite-based digital radio services (DARS) and was instrumental in the development of the technology infrastructure used today by XM Satellite Radio.

Worldspace boasts a range of over 40 radio stations across genres – from Jazz to Classical, to Old Hindi Film Music and Rock. Its Indian programming includes two Indian classical stations – Shruti (Carnatic) and Gandharv (Hindustani), as well as regional Indian stations, viz. Tara (Bengali), KL Radio (Tamil), Sparsha (Kannada), RM Radio (Malayalam), Spandana (Telugu) and Tunak Punjabi (Punjabi) and a Spiritual and Wellness station, Moksha, among others.

For more information, please visit http://www.worldspace.com/.

About Planet M

The Planet M story has come a long way since it began 6 years ago with a single store in Mumbai, high on attitude and ambience, and mind-blowing in its superlative collection of International and Hindi music, movies, CD-ROM games and a home grown line of trendy attitude wear. Planet M is now present in 122 locations across no less than 32 cities! At Planet M, one can browse through an extensive collection of Music, VCDs, DVDs, CD-ROMs, Audio Accessories and Planet M memorabilia.

About Music World

Music World Entertainment Ltd, is India’s No: 1 Music and Home Video retail chain and is part of the Rs. 8500 crore RPG Group. In a span of 8 years, Music World the pioneers of organized music retail in India, has achieved over 8 million footfalls a year in their 14 showrooms in cities such as Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Pune, Kochi, Kolkata, New Delhi, Chandigarh, Siliguri and also established, in their efforts to remain close to music lovers of India, about 259 Music World Express stores and Music World Unplugged counters in several leading grocery retail chains and BPCL Petrol Pumps in various parts of IndiaSpain, Colombo, Malaysia, Australia, Korea etc.

Contact

Rohit Nair

Torque Communications

M: +9820814263

rohit@torquemail.com

About Author