FAQs

faq's

Frequent Questions

One vital source of income for TV and radio stations is the SMS messages sent in as votes or in response to competitions or questions about programs. Although the income share of SMS votes on reality TV show programs are big money earners – sometimes nearly enough to finance the program – very few media owners have a clear strategy for raising money in this way.

What does your SMS Messaging Platform do?

The Radio SMS platform enables TV and radio stations to create and manage SMS Events – including competitions, polls, surveys, voting, games and Text-A-Request. It can help set the questions, collate the responses and answers, generate updates, as well as store the SMS Event information and phone numbers. You can set it so that every text gets a response . The solution is provided with keywords, a dedicated virtual mobile number and SMS short codes.

Can you explain short codes for those who might not be familiar with them?

A SMS short code is a simple 4/5 digit number that you can dial to send an SMS. It easier to dial than a full number and it’s memorable. It’s a premium number so you pay a little more. In the UAE, the average SMS message is AED 0.30 - whereas an SMS message to a premium number can cost from AED 1 to AED5 or 10

How’s the revenue split?

The revenue is shared three ways between the mobile operator, the SMS Messaging provider (us!) and the radio or TV station. In the UAE, it is 40-50% to the operator with the remaining 50% split between the short code operator and the radio or TV station. In other region it vary as per operator policy, for details please send email to info@radiosms.ca

What’s in it for media owners?

There are three things media owners will want to do: 1. Make money out of interacting with their audiences. 2. Enhance the relationship between the station and its advertisers. This platform gives advertisers better management of responses and the monitoring of them. From there, there’s a direct correlation as to how they spend their money and their marketing budgets. 3. Give the listener a better relationship with the TV or radio station. They feel their views are being listened to and as a result, they feel excited, involved – and entertained. In terms of the latter, in Nigeria there was a lot of discussion about governance because of the situation with the health of the President. A lot of this discussion took place around Facebook and other on-line and social networking platforms. But with the SMS Radio Application gives opportunities for the listeners to vote on key issues. It gives the opportunity for listeners and viewers to interact.

How do radio and TV stations pay for your SMS platform?

We have different pricing structures. You can pay a license fee for the software, a quarterly fee or we can provide the software license for free and take a percentage of the SMS traffic income. Many of the media owners have their own short codes so they pay for a license. We have key words and short codes for certain countries. To check short code and service availability please send email to info@dataslices.com