There are many reasons to be proud of radio, and the success story of this medium is evident. "So let us raise our heads, be proud of what we have achieved, join our forces and be even more proud of what we can achieve in the future", said EBU Media Director Annika Nyberg-Frankenhaeuser, encouraging the audience in her opening speech at the RadioDaysEurope 2013 in Berlin. She continued, "The common goal for radio is to secure the future of radio!" To ensure this objective, together with high-level radio executives both from public and commercial broadcasters, the EBU has launched the Euro-Chip concept campaign, promoting a free-to-air broadcast backbone combined with broadband services. Statistic presented at different sessions in Berlin prove that there will be not enough bandwith for live broadcasting via mobile networks. 

Euro-Chip concept saves listeners money

An Euro-Chip integrated in smartphones, web-tablets and car radios could be the solution. Some chip manufacturers already have these tiny parts in their produc range. This would save listeners a great deal of money. As Nick Piggott, Chairman of RadioDNS, pointed out, merely listening to a radio channel live-stream via GSM consumes 2.2 GB per month which leads to fairly high costs for flatrates. But Euro-Chip will also offer the possibility of added value for radio listening, such as the tagging of music titles. "We will make sure that the content will be there," concluded EBU Media Director Nyberg.

Major content: music

Music and radio is an old and still vibrant teams. Despite all the online and mobile music platforms which have flooded the market over the past couple of years radio has maintained its number one position in introducing new music to the audience, said Tony Wadsworth, Chairman of British Phonographic Industry -a fact which Euroradio can underline 100 percent with respect to all the successful music radio stations run by our Members. Of course, music sales have gone down sharply in recent years but income from digital distribution is on a steep rise.  Wadsworth is therefore totally optimistic about the future of music. He is counting on network-based audio solutions in homes and on 4G/LTE, which will give mobile networks a boost. Knowing this a free-to-air consumption of broadcasting could be the choice of the future as well for the music industry.