"YouTube has the potential to become radio’s ‘shop window’," Euroradio Members attending the Eurovision ACADEMY Network & Learn on Visual Radio event in Prague heard on Friday 18 October.

The workshop followed Euroradio's New Radio Day where Members met to discuss radio's visual potential. Alistair Parrington, Producer BBC Radio 1 and 1Xtra, told participants that YouTube represents a defacto means to reach young audiences, who principally access content through multimedia devices.

“Understandably, some broadcasters are wary of entering into a partnership with YouTube — it’s tantamount to saying that traditional non-visual forms of radio are dead and that radio needs to be more like TV,” said Mr Parrington. “If however, your goal is to engage young audiences, it’s naïve to ignore the power of YouTube and exploit its potential.”  

Mr Parrington said that by creating bespoke content, Radio 1, which targets 16 to 24 year olds, had built its YouTube following from around 38,000 in May 2012 to 600,000 today. Its ambition is to achieve a million followers by the new year.

“Research on the multi-media habits of young people identify peak on-line periods, which loosely correspond to natural breaks in the day,” said Mr Parrington. “Our strategy, built on experimentation, is to stream live content and upload at those key times and to create authentic, highly shareable videos. For example, a parody of a Miley Cyrus video that's attracted over 3.3 million YouTube hits. The criteria is simple — the content has to elicit a reaction of either LOL or OMG. The Tumbler affect cascades downwards and we selectively offer some content internationally, benefitting from the tidal effect. We believe we can become one of YouTube’s top five broadcasting networks, alongside The XFactor.”  

His final advice to Members? “Don’t be afraid. Without YouTube, radio could be finished. Instead, it’s experiencing an exciting transition. The internet forces you to engage. So does New Radio. By contrast, TV is nothing more than an augmented form of radio.”

About Eurovision ACADEMY's Network & Learn on Visual Radio event

More than 60 members of the Euroradio community attended the Eurovision ACADEMY Network & Learn event in Prague, hosted by EBU Member Czech Radio. The event provides a platform to explore why and how broadcasters are going visual, through concrete examples, case studies and panel discussions.