What will the Ofcom and Lord Carter reports mean for radio?

Travis Baxter, MD radio (strategy, regulation and business development) at Bauer Media, looks at what the forthcoming reports from Ofcom and Lord Carter could mean for radio…

The ill economic winds have blown into the New Year of 2009, swirling around the imminent publication of two key industry reviews which will affect each of us as consumers and providers of media.

The Ofcom PSB review and Lord Carter’s vision for Digital Britain are widely anticipated. They are vitally important and will shape the media landscape for a generation. Each has been subject to intense public and behind the scenes lobbying and we are in the throes of increasing external briefing activity, positioning one way or another.

My particular focus today is on radio. Both a generic view on the original broadcast media which is close to celebrating its first 100 years, and also digital radio – a platform to which Bauer Media is committed and continues to champion – and is expected to prompt much debate within the forthcoming reviews.

Radio in the UK remains a powerful medium with pretty stable audiences, despite doomsayers and the proliferation of new media over the last decade. Radio has ridden the storms of ‘new entrants’ such as movies, TV, multi channel TV, mobile phones, the internet, broadband and iPods. In general, radio now rubs along quite happily with these technologies and remains a compelling catalyst for communities, whether grouped by geography or programming content preference.

At 8am on a typical weekday 26 million people in the UK are listening to the radio, roughly split down the middle between the BBC and commercial radio stations. Dividing audience numbers yet further reveals that this breakfast audience of 26 million includes 5 million who are listening through DAB, online, and listening through satellite and Freeview, the largest digital audience is through DAB, attracting 3.4 million.

A total commercial radio audience of around 12 million provides great value opportunities for advertisers from both a reach and creative perspective, and the diversity of engagement from small local stations to large city and conurbation stations and on to national radio provide significant planning diversity for advertisers’ campaigns.

These audiences are both large and robust; they have grown from a sector that provides high quality entertainment, news and sport coverage, significant local involvement through local news and active social and community engagement. At a local level the stations provide a significant catalyst to support small business development, and for much of us radio is still the only 24 hour a day live broadcast medium.

So what is anticipated for radio from the forthcoming PSB review and Lord Carter’s interim report this month?

Well, from our position within commercial radio, we already partner other broadcasters to benefit from the broader reach that we together offer advertisers. We have also been very clear that we fully support the creation of an enabling and supportive role of the BBC. However, this must be a true partnership, and come with a clearer operational mandate to ensure the best seats on the beach are not taken exclusively by the corporation.

And in regard to Digital Britain we are looking forward to an exciting digital future. We have long known our future will be a digital one and have consistently championed this platform, introducing new stations as audiences and the market allows. It is unfortunate that the prime broadcast digital technology DAB has got off to a slow start and despite significant commercial sector and BBC investment this technology needs a real kick start. We are hoping that Lord Carter’s review will be similarly categoric in its support of DAB as the platform of the future, along with a committed level of funding. This significant intervention will be a great leap from where we are today, but it is not something the commercial sector can achieve or afford on its own.

We look forward to devising new radio creative ideas as the sector changes over the next 5-10 years and identifying new means to engage our listeners through the enabling opportunities new technology brings. In 2022 our industry will be 100 years old and we look forward to having a big digital radio party (and cake) on that day.