WorldDMB brought together commercial broadcasters and digital radio experts to share their experiences of going digital at a workshop ‘The Digital Radio Experience’ held during the French radio industry event Le Radio 2012 which took place in Paris, 5-7 February, 2012.
Speakers covered issues such as cost, regulation, competition, and revenue generation opportunities for broadcasters by using international case studies from countries who have already committed to a digital future for their radio industries.
Patrick Hannon, VP Corporate Development at chip manufacturer Frontier Silicon opened the workshop by saying, ‘Radio needs to remain relevant and go digital in a world where competition comes from a wide range of media such as Spotify and Google. There is now compelling evidence that digital radio enables new revenue generation opportunities and broadcasters need to proactively exploit these opportunities to ensure that they stay competitive in the market place.’
Chris Weck, Technical Director at the German national public broadcaster, Deutschlandradio, emphasised how both commercial and public broadcasters in one of the largest radio markets managed the transition to digital radio through cross-industry collaboration. Dr Weck said “Digital radio enabled us to save 66% of the transmission costs. After switching off all our analogue terrestrial transmitters we calculate to save more than 20 million Euro per annum on distribution costs.’ He went on to give an overview of future plans for network roll-out, marketing, working with retailers, which services were on air including data and traffic and travel services.
Jonathan Arendt, Managing Director of the largest digital commercial radio station in the UK, Planet Rock, analysed how a market for digital radio can be created saying ‘The key is to provide your audience with what they want – good content. Planet rock does not think of itself as a digital only station and undertakes targeted marketing, very much in the style of traditional radio stations’.
Digital radio was a major topic of discussion at Le Radio 2012 and during the conference session dedicated to digital radio the representative of the French Regulator, the Conseil supérieur de l'audiovisuel (CSA), Rachid Arhab, confirmed the CSA’s request to the French Ministry of Industry to include DAB+ in the technical standard for France. The level of interest and support for digital radio was notably high amongst delegates at this year’s conference and a highlight of the session was the promotional video for the newly launched trial RNT Nantes which gives a fun look at the reasons to go digital. Other demonstration trials are currently running in Lyon, Marseille, and Paris and several further trials are planned for 2012.
Le Radio conference organiser, Philippe Chapot said ‘France wishes to commit to adding DAB+ to its technical standard, a move that will show Frances desire to bringing radio into the digital future, enabling the industry to compete with other digital forms of media entertainment by providing more functionality, interactivity and choice for the consumer”.
(Source : WorldDMB)
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