Opinion
Radio’s future is clear to see
02.06.2006Jonathan Barrowman, Head of Radio Who would have predicted people would listen to Radio on TV sets? Or that there would now be 17.7m adults using Digital TV as a device to do such a thing? But I think it was only a matter of time, as it was Radio that began the trend of huddling around a box in the living room in the first place. It was also Radio that invented the Soap Opera, so I figure TV owes us one, and plasma screen home entertainment systems are just modern equivalents of the old wooden wirelesses. But what distinguishes these new ‘radios’ is they provide a visual platform to engage listeners, supporting their traditional aural credentials.
With over 11% of all listening now on Digital platforms, people are accessing Radio via a number of visual gateways. This visual engagement – via EPGs on digital televisions, internet radio players, mobile phone handsets and DAB Digital Radios – is an additional level of communication that strengthens the close relationship with listeners. Indeed, Digital Radio’s strength in convergence is its ubiquity, and this is reinventing the way people have traditionally interacted with the medium.
It therefore seems logical for advertisers to use these visual gateways as another consumer touch-point. Initiative was the first to brand Sky’s EPG of Digital Radio stations. ‘Orange presents Smash Hits Radio’ takes listeners into the audio stream and includes additional visual interaction via Red Button technology. Internet Radio portals allow for even richer engagement and ‘DABstream’, the data display on DAB radios, is also beginning to show its potential.
DAB is the lead Digital Radio platform, with 3million DAB sets sold to date and consumers snapping up the third million in just five months. On top of the audio stream, the technology is capable of ‘Sky+ for radio’ although in its current guise ‘DABstream’ has only delivered programming-related scrolling text.
However, pioneering work by Initiative on ‘DABverts’ – 128 character scrolling text messages which use SMS as a return path – demonstrates that people not only ‘watch’ radio but will also engage with advertisers. One ‘DABvert’ for Orange asked listeners to text in positive reasons for having their phone switched on or off. ‘Imagining enjoying a bubble bath with Mel Gibson’ and ‘having a baby’ are two good reasons for having your phone turned off. When turned on, listeners identified ‘receiving cool pictures from friends’ to being ‘switched on to the world around me.’
The future possibilities for Radio ‘DABverts’ are broad. The self-publishing phenomenon of blogging evidently sits neatly with Radio. As a medium that has always invited audience participation with a strong community aspect, as well as demonstrating DR potential, the opportunities for ‘DABstream’ are extremely encouraging.
So, with visual interactivity, bigger screens, higher definition and richer imagery across a number of platforms, my expectation is that people will engage even more with ‘visual radio’. Far from being simply something people ‘listen to whilst doing other things’ Radio has demonstrated its potential to become a visual participatory activity in its own right.
