Category Archives: Radio

Radioplayer Celebrates Its First Anniversary: We Take a Look at How Far They Have Come and What to Expect

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April 13, 2012

Radioplayer Celebrates its First Anniversary: We Take a Look at How Far They Have Come

The beginning of April saw the first birthday of Radioplayer. At launch, it was feted as “an unprecedented display of industry coordination” and was teed up to be a game-changer by those in radio. Twelve months later, What’s Hot takes a look at how it’s getting on.

First of all, a quick recap on Radioplayer. UK Radioplayer Ltd is a not-for-profit collaboration between a collection of commercial stations and the BBC. It is an online audio player which gives listeners access to live, on-demand and podcast radio from hundreds of stations in the UK. Its aim is simple – to streamline the fragmented online listening experience, and to stop listeners from straying to rival audio streaming platforms such as Spotify and Rdio.

One year on, the facts speak for themselves. Radioplayer has doubled the number of stations available, now offering over 320, catering for every musical genre and regional preference. More significantly, initial projections were for 3-4m users per month. February 2012 saw this target smashed, with 7 million unique visitors to the platform, as quantified by Google Analytics. Moreover, online listening hours have increased 32% YoY in Q3 2011, followed by a 10% YoY increase in Q4 2011, and Radioplayer has been pointed to as one of the key drivers of this. Seemingly, it is causing a distinct impact on UK listening behaviour.

Currently, Radioplayer is optimised for desktop and laptop PCs only. Such is their faith in the platform however, that Currys and Dixons now pre-install the desktop version on all their PCs. In the spirit of expansion, Radioplayer is following the launch of its Facebook app with a series of other own-brand apps to be rolled out this summer. Plans are afoot for mobile apps from Apple and Android, TV apps, beginning with YouView, and long term rumours look towards in-car integration, similar to the deal recently brokered in the US between Ford and listening platform Pandora.

From a media trading perspective, individual radio groups and stations sell their own airtime – in the same manner as traditional radio – and online commercial space – there is no central ‘Radioplayer sales team’. This allows for flexibility in planning, and the ability to buy on a station-by-station basis, with no obligation to commit to a bulk buy. The interface also provides advertisers with the opportunity to visually skin the station’s player, expanding the touchpoints with the listener.

So what’s next? Global domination, apparently. Radioplayer Worldwide is about to be launched, and a licence agreement has already been signed with Russia, with other countries set to follow. The good news is that revenues generated from this expansion will be reinvested in the UK Radioplayer, funding continued development for the UK radio industry. All in all, a massive success so far. Music to our ears.

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Tuning In

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March 16, 2012

At the beginning of March, Absolute Radio proclaimed that it was ‘redefining radio’ with the launch of its new ‘InStream’ listening service. InStream allows logged in listeners to be served with targeted ads in traditional airtime, something Absolute claims is a first for the UK radio industry. In the modern era of media where data is the new gold dust, What’s Hot decided that this deserved a closer look.

So how does it work? From a consumer point of view, Absolute Radio listeners are encouraged to register their details – age, gender and location – and log in when listening from a laptop, desktop, smartphone or tablet. In return, they get higher quality audio, less and more relevant ads, rewards and exclusive content. From an advertiser’s point of view, it gives the opportunity to serve extremely targeted audio ads, with an accompanying visual. From a technical point of view, after hearing two InStream ads, the logged in listeners will hear up to two minutes of exclusive content until the non-logged in ads have finished, at which point the two ‘streams’ converge again to be in-sync.

The closest equivalent to this is Pandora, an American online audio platform that allows the listener to essentially personalise their own customised radio stations. Similar to InStream, logged in listeners receive less ads, all of which are targeted based on their data. For almost ten years, Pandora struggled to find investors and was locked in battles with various record labels over royalties.

However, fortunes changed following the launch of a hugely successful iPhone app. In terms of scale, the Pandora app is now downloaded on one out of every two smartphones purchased in the US. It delivered 3.9 billion listener hours in 2011, has a 4% market share for all US listening and was valued at $2.6bn when it was launched on the NYSE last year. The company recently announced a deal with Ford which is likely to bump up listeners massively, and it is in talks with other consumer electronics companies to integrate Pandora into Blu-ray players, TVs and music systems. Logged in listening is definitely here to stay.

It’s still very early days for Absolute’s InStream (they currently have approx 200,000 sign-ups) but, as a new proposition, it definitely has a tangible media value.  The IP listening community is a data-rich audience and radio advertising now has the potential to be targeted, interactive and measurable, and delivered in a superior and less cluttered environment. By merging opt-in privacy data with live online streaming, we are moving towards a position where we can account and measure the cause and effect of radio advertising and ensure that a traditional medium can continue to thrive in the digital age. Worth keeping an eye…and an ear on this one? Absolutely.

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Hear me now – the7stars Q3 RAJAR update.

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October 28, 2011

The reach of all radio has remained above 47m for the third consecutive quarter, with all radio listening hours increasing by 2% YoY, and with almost 91% of the UK population tuning in.

Commercial radio has seen a slight QoQ decline of 0.9%, but still boasts a 43.3% share of all radio hours.

Capital London has won the battle for top London radio station this quarter, knocking Magic 105.4 into third place, following another burst of TV advertising pushing the Capital brand. Heart 106.2 also surged passed Magic, claiming second place, with LBC 97.3 and Kiss 100 completing the London top five respectively.

Following investment in station consolidation, many of the radio networks are performing well. The largest commercial network in the country is the Heart Network, delivering 7.6m listeners, followed by Capital with 7m, Kiss UK with 4.1m, Magic UK with 3.8m, Smooth Radio UK with 3.3m and Total Real Radio with 2.6m. Smooth and Real Radio networks reported their highest ever weekly reach this quarter.

Classic FM remains the most listened to single commercial UK radio station, despite a poor quarter. Talksport remained largely flat in hours QoQ.

Absolute Radio’s network hours have increased by over 11% YoY but have dropped 16% QoQ. Absolute 80s delivered over 1m listeners for the first time, and is now the 10th biggest UK commercial station.

When it comes to local radio, commercial radio delivers 27m listeners, compared to 9.5m for the BBC’s local and regional services. First Radio, who represent 120 of the UK’s local radio services, report that 6m adults tune in to one of their stations for an average of 8.7 hours per week.

Digital listening has grown once again, and now accounts for a 28.2% share of all radio listening, up from 26.9% QoQ, no doubt helped by RadioPlayer.  Over 20m adults also claim to live in a household with a DAB receiver.

In terms of mobile listening, 16% of adults and 32% of 15-24s now claim to listen to radio on their mobile phone. A recent RAJAR study also found that over 20% of all smartphone owners have a radio app.

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Listen up! the7stars RAJAR Q1 update

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May 13, 2011

A new record has been set for radio listenership with 91.6% of the population now listening to UK radio every week.

Commercial radio has a 42.6% share of listening and reaches over 34 million adults every week, a 1.3% YoY increase.

Capital London regained the number one spot in London, deposing Magic 105.4 to second place, with an 11% increase in reach. LBC, Heart London and Kiss 100 complete the capital city’s top five.

Classic FM remains the most listened to single commercial station with a reach of 6 million adults.

talkSPORT fared well with a 37% YoY increase in listenership.

The Absolute Radio Network is up to 2.3 million listeners thanks to the inclusion of Absolute 00s, the most recent addition to its portfolio.

The newly rebranded Capital Radio stations remained static overall with Capital Birmingham and Capital Scotland increasing reach, and Capital South Wales and Capital Manchester decreasing reach.

While larger networks are consolidating their stations, local radio is still performing well with First Radio representing 11% of commercial listening hours.

Digital listening now accounts for 26.5% of all radio listening. The Hits and Smash Hits were the most listened to commercial digital-only stations with both recording over 1 million listeners.

One fifth of smartphone owners have a radio app and 11% of adults now listen to the radio via a mobile phone.

Source: RAJAR Q1 2011

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RADIO KILLED THE VIDEO STAR?

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April 14, 2011

At last a breakthrough for the radio industry at a time where radio sadly seemed to be a stagnant medium in the wake of the ever powerful digital domination. It is a breath of fresh air to see the radio industry innovate. In an age where 4-5 million people currently listen to radio online each month, Radioplayer (the new collaboration between the BBC and commercial stations) is predicting an audience of 3 million at launch.

Radioplayer offers a single online radio platform with live radio streams, allowing users to listen to shows on-demand and set favourite stations for easy access at a later date. There are currently 160 stations on the player and users can search by station, region, genre, presenter or programme. The aim is to simplify the complex, inconsistent and fragmented online listening experience, bringing more choice to radio listeners using the latest digital technology.

Radioplayer represents increased opportunities for advertisers to reach their target audiences in non-traditional audio formats, with the option to visually skin and brand the station online as well as offering sponsorship possibilities. At launch a number of advertisers have embraced the concept including Volvo, Swiftcover and Lexus.

The collaboration between commercial stations and the BBC is groundbreaking for radio. In providing a form of online listings magazine, users are given a single source to search for a wide choice of stations. This presents a leveller playing field for all stations and has the potential to broaden the radio listening audience for the industry.

So while the concept is great we wonder if the Radioplayer does quite enough to convince the user. IP radio has been available for a while with BBC’s iPlayer leading the way. So for the user this is nothing particularly new. One major downfall is the inability to search by artist which you can do on Spotify, where the majority of online listeners are going at the moment.

It is a transformative period for UK radio and what this will look like in the future and how exactly this will play out over the coming months, who knows, but it is definitely a step in the right direction. Like all traditional media channels, the radio industry is not sitting on its laurels and becoming complacent; instead it is trying to innovate and adapt with the changing times. For now we say – RadioPlayer, with a bit of ‘fine-tuning’ we salute you.

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