Need to be proactive, can’t be reactive on radio trends: Bell, Rogers

TORONTO — If there’s one thing radio players can do to be successful in an industry that has faced new competition in recent years, it is to start putting more time and energy into discovering how audiences will consume radio, especially on digital, in the future, according to representatives from some of Canada’s largest broadcasters. “I think we have to spend more time on the needs, thinking about what our audience is going to look like five years from now and how we're going to reach them and less time trying to react to things as they appear because the digital path is littered with products that have been tossed out,” said Rob Farina, head of radio content, strategy, and of iHeartRadio for BCE Inc.’s media division. Farina made the comments during a Thursday panel discussion on radio going mobile at the Ontario Association of Broadcasters Connection 2017 conference in Toronto. He was joined by Daniel Anstandig, CEO of Futuri Media, a United States-based software company that provides services to broadcasters, and Rogers Communications Inc.’s Paul Kaye. The eighth annual conference explored issues including understanding audiences and how to take advantage of broadcasting in an age of technological change. Kaye, who is vice-president of product and talent development with the company’s media division, said while the industry may be doing enough to attract people to radio, it is a little different to keep them engaged. “That’s the double-edged sword for me,” Kaye said. “The reality is there’s a new breed of consumer that we aren’t used to that has the opportunity to consume different kinds of content and experiment with different … technology.” Kaye added that as technology drives change, that change will happen quicker and quicker. “Engagement is going to look differently. We've got to measure that differently, we've got to keep experimenting today, and we need to fundamentally understand how the business is going to be different five, 10 years from now because the expectations of the audience are radically changing,” he said. Traditional radio has faced some tough times. Private radio revenues in the country declined for a third-straight year when they saw a 3.3 per cent dip in 2016, according to Statistics Canada. At the same time, this year also brought some reassurances in the sector, in the form of CRTC commissioner Stephen Simpson saying that radio will thrive in a competitive market due to its demanding local content, as well as a report by CBC/Radio-Canada’s Media Technology Monitor, which found radio still commands heavy attention attention from anglophone Canadians. This week, the CRTC also released its Communications Monitoring Report, which tracks data in the communications industry including revenues, subscriber data, and emerging trends. It reported that over the last five years, the amount of time Canadians spent listening to traditional radio fell more than two hours, with the percentage of Canadians who stream music doubling over that same period. “Most analysts expect these trends to continue, for both television and radio,” CRTC vice-chairwoman of broadcasting Caroline Simard said during a lunch speech at the conference. “Broadcasters must find ways to make the most of their digital platforms.” And moves in that space have been made. Bell partnered with iHeartRadio, which aggregates radio content and streams it digitally, and launched in Canada late last year. In that same period, Rogers, Cogeco Inc. and Corus Entertainment Inc. announced that their stations would be among 500 available in the free Radioplayer app, which is based on the UK model with a similar name. Radioplayer and iHeartRadio were both acknowledged by Simard in her speech as ways to connect audiences. Radioplayer, in particular, is a “great example” of a recognition that digital and radio should not be considered separate entities because “it’s not,” Kaye added. “It’s about integrating mobile in the strategy,” he noted further. “It’s about creating great content, repackaging it for other platforms ... from there I think we’ll find a better, clearer path forward.” To be sure, that path will be strewn with challengers, as Simard pointed to streaming services and podcasts. She also urged participants at the conference to engage in the CRTC consultation on future content distribution models that the government requested as part of Heritage’s strategy on Canadian content in the digital age in September. The new deadline to submit comments is Dec. 1. “The other beautiful thing on digital is you can get the analytics, so we can know pretty quickly whether we’re putting our resources into the right space and if it’s not working, we can change it,” Kaye said, adding those involved in radio should “do one thing, and do one thing well.” He agreed with Farina, who said the “defining line has to be, you can't be going into areas where you're not already highly perceived. We need to know the hill we own and then make that a better hill.” As for Anstandig, he asked: “are you getting your own broadcast content easily into your digital platforms? “You produce a number of hours of original content that goes over the air and is never heard from again — do you have a system in place that captures that content, parses it and reissues it on social, on mobile, on your site, on iHeart, etc.?” — With reporting by Ahmad Hathout at ahathout@thewirereport.ca and editing by Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca

Need to be proactive, can’t be reactive on radio trends: Bell, Rogers

Broadcast | November 9, 2017

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Need to be proactive, can’t be reactive on radio trends: Bell, Rogers

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