Softly softly catchee monkey
James Cridland, managing director of Media UK and a radio futurologist, says today’s RAJAR release continues to show a slow but steady increase in take-up of digital radio. If there is a way to accelerate this, it’s good for listeners and broadcasters alike – but it is also prudent to remain patient…
I’m writing this from a radio conference in Belgium – deep in the bowels of the 1931-built radio studio complex. It’s now a new entertainment complex, and regularly holds plays and theatre – but some of the buildings’ past is still obvious. The room I’m in – which was once the electricity control room – contains those large power switches you only see in James Bond, the ones that spark dangerously as the baddie is about to electrocute one of Her Majesty’s finest.
One of the things about travelling a lot is that you bump into differences in language and culture. In the US recently I was chatting with some newly-made American friends, when I was discussing the need to move slowly, patiently and deliberately to achieve something. “You know,” I added helpfully, “softly softly catchee monkey”.
From the guffaws of merriment that ensued, it was clear that this phrase – a Ghanian proverb – is completely alien to the good folks of California. But, this slow patience does appear to be working for digital radio in the UK.
The radio industry would quite like people to move over to digital radio (which is DAB, internet, or radio through the TV). Some commercial broadcasters would like digital radio because it gives them far more access to audiences than they’ve had in the past: the BBC have the lion’s share of FM frequencies, particularly on a national basis.
The BBC, on the other hand, see that by launching additional stations, like Radio 6music or the Asian Network, they can reach segments of their audience that they underserve, and can thus give good value to licence-fee payers (and safeguard the BBC’s future). All would like to stop broadcasting on one or other systems, so that they can save money.
The fly in the ointment is that even though people love digital radio once they’ve got it, until they get it they’re unaware that there’s a new radio station which they’d be happier with. I’ve had DAB for a long time (ten years or so) and my listening habits still contain many stations available on FM: but I also enjoy some new services (notably the BBC World Service, available 24-hours on digital, Absolute 80s, and BBC 6music).
The new RAJAR radio research figures, released today, tend to show that patience will get us there. 48.4% of people listen to radio via a digital platform at least once a week – a significant figure while the majority of cars on the road don’t have digital built-in. If you look at the time that people spend listening, then digital now accounts for 28.2% of all listening hours – the vast majority (73% of all listening hours) to DAB Digital Radio. It’s a slow and steady increase – but a significant one, with time spent listening to digital radio up 16% over the past year.
Technology journalists compare digital radio’s take-up with other new technologies, but that’s a false comparison. Radio’s a secondary medium – we consume radio while we do other things – so we don’t tend to see it as exciting and interesting as television, which has traditionally held our full attention.
The same is true of radio’s relationship in comparison to things like iPads or computers – even I don’t get excited about buying a radio, yet unwrapping my tri-annual laptop upgrade is always a thrill. So it is a harder job convincing people to buy a new radio and get new services – “if I like Radio 2, why should I change?”, goes the argument.
As we continue to see a slow but steady increase in take-up of digital radio, with the tighter targeting and better opportunities the technology represents for radio advertisers, we should remember than FM took over 40 years to overtake AM listening in the US. If there is a way to accelerate this, it’s good for listeners and broadcasters alike – but it is also prudent to remain patient. Softly softly catchee monkey, after all.