DRC07: radio in 2015

How will people listen to the radio in 2015? That’s the question that a group of academics put to more than 40 media ‘experts’ in Canada, Denmark, Finland, Ireland and the UK.

The interviewees told the DRACE (Digital Radio Cultures in Europe) group that by 2015 most Europeans would have digital terrestrial radio. The DRACE report says DAB will be a strong option in the UK and Denmark, but supplemented with Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM) and DMB.

However, those interviewed stress that DAB coverage patterns do not match the needs of commercial or community stations, for whom DAB is “an expensive and uneconomic system.”

DRM emerges as the favourite secondary system in Europe. Most see DRM and DAB as complementary systems.

Nevertheless, by 2015, Finns are likely to be using the DVB-H technology developed by Nokia, while Canadians will have IBOC, DAB and satellite radio. (Not really sure why the Canadians are in this survey.)

Most respondents to the DRACE questionnaire believe that a TV-style digital switchover for radio is very unlikely. They also predict that given existing market penetration, FM radio will continue to play a significant role in both Europe and Canada.

The interviewees say Internet radio and audio services will continue to grow. That is good news if, like me, you have forked out recently for a WiFi radio.

The survey finds no consensus about the dominant European way of delivering radio in 2015: most respondents predict there will be distinct national solutions. Differences in national regulation and frequency administration will fragment the digital radio landscape.

On the content front, the report highlights two main points.

Firstly, respondents predict there will be an increase in personalized and on-demand radio, with more listener sovereignty, personalization options and the gradual disappearance of schedules. Radio will be available when and where listeners want it.

They believe that more content will be produced by the audience and that some user-generated content may be broadcast without editing. After all, this is the era of YouTube and MySpace.

The report also says that different types of content could be linked to different platforms.

The second point is that traditional broadcast radio will continue to play an important role in people’s lives. This is attributed to the strengths of linear radio, including mobility, ease of access and localism, as well as powerful journalistic and artistic content.

Two of the co-authors of the DRACE report, Marko Ala-Fossi and Helen Shaw, will be attending the EBU digital radio conference, DRC07, on 14th and 15th June.

Comments

[Franc]

How will people listen to the radio in 2015?

My response is simple (and slightly simplistic): People will listen to the radio services everywhere, all the time and on all devices. Radio services will become ubiquitous.

Radio services will be integrated in all broadcast and communications platforms: satellite, cable, terrestrial, IPTV, internet.

Radio services will be integrated in all broadcast receivers (or better terminals): TV STBs, portable devices, media players, etc.

On the other hand, as radio services become integral part of broadcast delivery, they may loose exclusivity and dedication. The tendency is there will be less and less dedicated radio networks and less and less dedicated radio receivers. Radio will be integrated in the generic "media systems", capable of carrying and delivering not only audio but also other media types: video, text, graphics, pictures, etc.

So, I believe the prospects for future radio (services) are brilliant but radio will vanish as a stand-alone service; it will be embraced by other (multi)media and will loose independence and sovereignty. Fortunately, this may not happen tomorrow but may happen in ten years (say, 2015).