Radio Industry Looks Forward To The Future
Today’s MediaTel Group seminar on the future of radio saw the top players in the commercial sector mount an impassioned defence of the medium, offering their thoughts on a variety of subjects and all unanimous in the belief that radio has a bright future despite some of the naysayers in the press.
All of those on the panel admitted that radio, like the rest of the media industry, faces a challenging time, with Nathalie Schwarz, director of radio at Channel 4, saying: “Radio is going through exactly the same challenge and opportunity as the rest of traditional media, whether that’s print, whether that’s television, essentially looking at the rise of changing consumer behaviour.
“Audiences today are changing and we have to recognise that and embrace that and the growth of on-demand, interactivity and the need for portability, and the fact that people want content where they want it at their convenience is really important. We as broadcasters can really evolve the way we produce content and deliver it.”
Meanwhile, Ralph Bernard, chief executive of GCap Media, was confident that commercial radio will create new ad revenue models to ensure its future. He said: “Radio has an immensely powerful story to tell. What have we got to do to get more revenue? We’ve got to give better accountability, we’ve got to have more directly focused attention on the way we sell radio, I think we’ve got to learn lessons from our colleagues in other media.
“The story of radio is still the same. It attracts huge audiences, they are loyal audiences. I think we in our industry have got to fight back and fight back strongly, and yes, we can very definitely regain share and improve our revenue over the coming years.”
The panelists also felt that the rise in digital radio was an important factor in the success of the medium, whilst customer focus and giving consumers what they want and how they want it were also key to radio’s development.
Simon Cole, chief executive of UBC Media, spoke about the important part online plays and will continue to play with regard to radio. He said: “People who surf the internet listen to more radio. Internet surfing does not damage radio, it destroys television viewing.”
Bernard supported Cole’s comments, saying that developing online and radio communities as one entity will be a major area where commercial radio will advance and that he expects a considerable portion of revenue targets in the future to come from both.
Also discussed at the seminar was the challenge facing publicly owned media companies, with Simon Cole saying: “One of the great challenges ahead for publicly owned media companies at the moment is managing the amount of change that is necessary and spending the amount of money that is necessary and managing your shareholder base to do that.”
The change in radio measurement technique, from a diary to a meter, was also discussed at the seminar, and the general consensus was that although the diary format is not perfect, it is far from being the lame duck that some commentators would have us believe.
Bernard said of the diary format: “We have to live with it because its the best we’ve got but if we can improve it God knows I would love to do it.”
However, the general feeling amongst those gathered was that although diaries will eventually be replaced with meters, they are still up to the job. Phil Riley, chief executive of Chrysalis, said: “All of the evidence we have is that the meters are getting better but they are not yet at the stage where we are happy that they can replace the diary.
“We all know that diary has got flaws in it but every form of research known to man has flaws in it, including the diary, including BARB, including everything else. The problem we’ve got with the meters is that at the moment we have fundamental questions about people’s usage of the meters at breakfast time, people’s usage of the meters seven days a week, not just three or four days a week, peoples abilities to use the meters in a variety of different situations, all of which need to be tested.”
He added that at the end of the diary test period: “I’m certain that provided those meters prove themselves, and I’m pretty confident that we will see meters as a permanent part, in some way, shape, or form, of radio measurement going forward, but we’ve got to do the work first.”
Roger Gane, research director at the RSMB, said: “If you look at print media, if you look at internet, the measurement systems there are nowhere near as reliable and stable and credible as they are for radio.”
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