Digital Radio Show

I spoke recently on trends in broadcasting at the Digital Radio Show, a big industry event in London. It was an opportunity to rub shoulders and swap notes with many of the movers and shakers of the British media scene, including Quentin Howard (WorldDAB), Paul Eaton (Arqiva), Glyn Jones (Digital One) and Phil Riley (Chrysalis); Simon Nelson represented the BBC and Peter Senger was there for Digital Radio Mondiale. 

My argument was that the tradional, "shouting at people" style of broadcasting was gradually disappearing to be replaced with a new model based on "choice" and "voice". The former is the process of empowering auiences to decide not only what they consume, but also when (time-shifting) and where (place-shifting). "Voice" is at the heart of what the BBC has christened "Digital Futures" and involves building bridges with your audience to learn from them and create the kind of content they want.

I told the conference that on the face of it this was a new golden age for radio - earlier in the day, the CEO of Australian Commercial Radio, Joan Warner, had said that even on the other side of the world radio was up and TV viewing was down. But the underlying trend, highlighted by several speakers, was that fewer young people, in the key 15-24 demographic, were bothering much with either radio or TV.

The implications for the future were clear and the challenge for broadcasters was to meet the expectations of the "fast food generation" or lose listeners. I quoted Rupert Murdoch:

"A new generation of media consumers has risen, demanding content delivered when they want it, how they want it and very much as they want it."

Later in the day, I also took part in a panel discussion on the potential for broadcasters of peer-to-peer technology.

P2P could revolutionize the crazy world of distrubution over the internet, where until now the more successful you were, the more you paid. P2P technology could turn that model on its head because more streams would improve efficiency and actually lower costs.

Oh and it works: P2P technology enabled more than 74,000 people from 140 countries to watch the Eurovsion Song Contest online last month. The contest was transmitted in high 700 kbps quality, as well as 200 and 450 kbps, with no reported hitches or technical problems.

The potential for radio broadcasters is enormous. At the moment, many of the EBU's smaller members cannot afford more than about 100 streams before costs become prohibitive. 

Comments

[MM]

One of the exhibitors had an AE wi-fi radio, and somebody from Reciva attended the conference. But yes, it was dominated by DAB and one or two participants actually raised this point during the discussions. On the other hand, given that it was taking place in London, I don't think it should come as a total surprise. DAB is after all a massive success story in Britain.

[Franc]

Suprisingly, I could not detect in the radio show programme any reference to Internet radio devices such as Reciva, Noxon, etc. And yet these are very exciting developments indeed! It seems that the show was dominated by the traditional DAB/DRM guys and is less concerned by the internet potential to convey not only radio but any media to any device. Do you share my perception ?

Franc