EURORADIO mbly opens in Warsaw

EBU Director General Ingrid Deltenre speaking at the EURORADIO Assembly.

Europe's public service radio community has gathered in Warsaw to explore the challenges broadcasters face against a shifting media landscape.

The two day 21st EURORADIO Assembly hosted by EBU Member Polskie Radio, has attracted 80 radio executives.

Welcoming participants, EBU Director General Ingrid Deltenre provided a snapshot of public service radio, which she said remained strong, despite unprecedented disruption from global digital giants.

Public service broadcasters attract more than 400 million listeners across Europe, which represents almost 83 per cent of the population who listen on average for three hours daily," said Ms Deltenre. "Yes, we must be creative and imaginative to attract young audiences. But these figures highlight that radio is more than music. Radio is the theatre of the mind, a connection to the outside world. As a community we operate 854 radio services in 96 languages. As a community, radio is strong."

Ms Deltenre urged Members to be creative and imaginative, and to adapt their offering to attract young audiences.

"We need to acquire the most attractive rights, to produce the most ambitious European content and to recruit the best and brightest talent," she said. "We need to ensure access and findability on all relevant platforms and know our audiences inside-out."

Morning panel discussion Some key takeaways from the panel discussion led by Cilla Benk , Director General Swedish Radio, Ovidiu Miculescu, President Director General, Radio Romania, Els van de Sijpe, Media Mananager Radio, VRT Belgium, and Arthur Landwehr, Editor-in-chief, SWR Germany:

Smart phone penetration represents a great opportunity for broadcasters.

In the age group up to 45, more people are using social media than listening to the radio.

Harness that interest by knowing your environment and your competition.

Discover what your audience wants, and when they want it.

Accept that you can t be the best at everything and set new priorities.

Create innovation teams and be better at selling yourself.

Good content is useless if it doesn t reach the right audience at the right time.

Learn from competition; don t copy them.

Communicate what the loss of PSM would mean not only the loss of high quality radio TV and digital media, but loss of jobs, loss of regional income and small business, loss of tax revenue, loss of attractive events.

Afternoon panel discussion The afternoon session focused on changing habits in media consumption. Dr David Fernandez from the EBU's Media Intelligence Service told event goers that music streaming is growing, but not at the expense of radio.

"Radio continues to capture 70 per cent of the weekly hours people spend listening to radio," he said. "In the UK, for every minute that someone listens to Spotify and other streaming services, they also listen to around 17 minutes of traditional live radio. Internet radio has been around for some years, but is hardly a new competitor, reaching daily 6.2 per cent of the daily audience in Germany, a market with a huge Internet radio offer. This is well below traditional radio figures, which is close to 80 per cent. Mobile phones are everywhere, which demonstrates the importance of reaching our traditional audiences and new audiences through smart phones."

Radio versus TV In a keynote speech, Tony Lavender, a consultant with expertise in telecoms strategy, technology and regulation, posed the question, will radio outlive television?

In a wide-ranging speech, Mr Lavender addressed changes in technology and consumption habits, concluding that although there is a future for both linear and non-linear audio and audio visual content delivery, politics will have its say.

"Questions relating to big policy issues like spectrum like in the hands of politicians," he said. "But ultimately audiences are led by content innovation and the relative economics of different platforms. It s about the attractiveness of the content, about how easy it is to access. One thing this current generation gets, is personalization. We need to acknowledge that and give them what they want."

LINK:	http://www3.ebu.ch/contents/news/2015/05/euroradio-assembly-opens-in-w...
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