Sunrise Radio announced as IIFA radio partner

The UK’s most listened to Asian radio station Sunrise Radio has been confirmed as the radio partner for this year’s International Indian Film Academy awards.

Sunrise Radio has beaten rival Asian radio stations in securing a lucrative deal to air exclusive material from the mega Bollywood event.

This year, the IIFA’s return to the UK. They are being held in Yorkshire in June. The IIFA Weekend is a four-day extravaganza taking place from the 7-10th June and includes events in Leeds, Bradford, Hull, York and London.

The IIFA weekend will include business forums, film premieres, workshops, a glitzy awards ceremony and charity fundraising events and the events in totality are expected to boost tourism in host region Yorkshire by more than �9.5m and attract 28,000 from all over the world.

Sunrise Radio and its sister station Kismat Radio will broadcast a build-up to the awards ceremony, which will be taking place on Saturday 9th June. The Sunrise Radio Group will also be given access to exclusive interviews, behind-the-scenes developments and backstage at the awards ceremony itself. Sunrise Radio is also expected to air exclusive highlights from the awards night to its listeners.

With this latest coup, Sunrise Radio is hoping to push the ‘Kismat’ brand, just like it did with its Punjabi Radio last weekend during the Asian Lifestyle Show in Birmingham. Punjabi Radio broadcasts on DAB digital radio in and around Birmingham and leading up to the event, the station was available on analogue FM to reach to a wider audience. This was all to create awareness for its Asian Lifestyle Show and newly launched Punjabi Radio station.

The first IIFA’s were held in London in 2001. Back then, the Midland’s renowned station Sabras Radio broadcast from the event.

Currently, the BBC Asian Network holds exclusive rights for coverage of the Indian equivalent to the Oscars – the Filmfares. They are organised by Worldwide Media Ltd, which is a 50:50 joint venture owned by the Times of India group and BBC Worldwide.

India’s leading Asian TV network STAR will broadcast the IIFA’s exclusively globally.