New Radio Days (Photos: Khalil Baalbaki/Czech Radio)

Euroradio Members attending New Radio Day (17 October) in Prague explored the medium's potential to enhance dynamic visual events, such as sports fixtures.

Mathias Coinchon, Senior Project Manager at EBU Technology & Innovation, briefed delegates on an experiment in partnership with Euroradio Sport (Christophe Pasquier, Senior Producer) and Swiss Timing during the 15th FINA World Aquatic Championships in Barcelona, Spain in August.  

Mr Coinchon, who is also Vice-Chairman of WorldDMB TC, and secretary of RadioDNS (hybrid radio), said the technical objective was three-fold: to deliver live score information in an automatic way; to test different kinds of visual content from a live sporting event, and to make radio broadcasters broaden their thinking to encompass metadata and pictures.

"New radio platforms such as DAB+, hybrid radio and apps are often fitted with colour screens, which offer the possibility to transmit pictures alongside audio," said Mr Coinchon."This raises the potential to give audiences access to associated program information. So far, we've experimented with sport. There's no reason why radio can't also offer listeners the opportunity to glance at a broader content range,  associated with news, weather, or traffic information."

Mr Coinchon said that depending on interest of various stakeholders, the option could become a regular service.

"From the broadcaster's side, there's the challenge of producing content in a lean way, but in also identifying what's relevant for the listener.  More and more devices used to listen to radio now come with a colour screen. We need to explore how new formats can enhance the listener experience."

More than 60 members of the Euroradio community are attending the 2013 New Radio Group's annual plenary event in Prague.  

A digital snapshot of Europe

Earlier, EUROADIO Head Christian Vogg told Members that Europe’s digital terrestrial radio landscape was expanding ­­­– but creating a secure hybrid future required greater effort.

"Europe is going at a different speed,” said Mr Vogg. “The UK has achieved 94 per cent technical coverage in the best part of two years. Norway is expected to be the first to switch-off FM frequencies within the next five years, and even in The Netherlands, which is facing severe budget cuts, technical coverage is at 70 per cent. At the other end of the spectrum are countries like France, where trials are still taking place. What we can say, however, is that the point of no return has been reached. The debate is over. Terrestrial digital is the future of radio.”

Renaud Casés, Digital Project Manager for CSA, the French regulator for radio and TV, briefed Members on the situation in France. He said that resistance to a digital switch-over had come from a few commercial media players and that the future of digital radio in France was uncertain. The obligation to clarify and move forward, he said, now rested with the French parliament.

His observations were echoed by Bruno Delport, CEO of Radio Nova (France) , who said that a decision to secure a digital terrestrial future must come quickly, or that France risked being left behind the rest of Europe.

Building a digital profile

Members also heard from Matt Deegan – programme director of ‘Fun Kids,’ an independent broadcaster awarded Sony Digital Radio Station of the Year, 2011.

Although today the station enjoys a 44 per cent digital share of youth audiences, Mr Deegan said achieving digital success requires a fresh marketing approach.

“You may think that if you create an audio platform, audiences will come,” said Mr Deegan, “but they don’t just stumble on you on-line. Today, we have 150,000 kids listening per week. But we started from absolute scratch, a position of zero awareness. My advice to anyone starting out, is to spend half your time creating great content, and the other half on raising awareness.”

Mr Deegan said ‘Fun Kids’ relied on content-led marketing, on-line discovery, driven by iTunes search.

“My other advice is to invest in a high performance team and give them content ownership. And only ever add staff when success dictates.”

The New Radio Group

The New Radio Group (NRG) is a forum for elected experts from member organisations to discuss the management of Radio as a digital industry and medium. The purpose of the group is to develop insights as to how new formats, technologies and distribution concepts may or should determine the future of Radio; both as a public service and a source of revenues.

The NRG is not a technical group, it is content led but also includes strategic and financial issues in its discussions. The group seeks to establish best practice and to study innovation in the migration of radio to a more diverse, multi-platform future. Above all, the NRG looks to connect, to create new relationships and understandings - the skills of content making with those of technology; the business of distribution with the behaviour of the audience; the public broadcaster with their private equivalent.