Radio Day at TNR Communications
It’s official – Radio is still one of the best ways to reach your potential audience. With the radio industry’s quarterly figures showing listening is up year on year, the medium has shown itself robust in the recession.
It’s had a tough old time though – it seems like every 5 seconds someone is warning of the death of the wireless – but the truth is that radio has managed to turn the internet, podcasting and digital broadcasting to its advantage.
The latest scaremongering about Spotify will likely also prove groundless. While Spotify might well give itunes a run for its money, commercial radio is unlikely to suffer as the ease of flicking a switch on the wireless to your favourite station is attractive to those of us out there who can’t be bothered to create endless playlists of the music we like.
Music aficionados will be attracted to Spotify because they know what they are looking for, but people like me, who can’t remember the name of a group for love or money, prefer to leave that to someone else. And Spotify isn’t trying to steal a march on BBC radio, which of course is mainly talk led.
In the fast-changing digital world, many media are being forced to diversify at a rapid rate. But bucking that trend is BBC Radio 4. It’s shown resilience to an attack from the digital media by sticking to what it’s always done. It has attracted a whopping 750,000 new listeners in just a year. And it’s pulled in new punters too – a younger, and more female audience than before.
The latest figures reveal UK radio listening as a whole remains high, attracting 45.7m adults each week – 89.2% of the 15+ UK population. But with programming budgets still under pressure, free, quality content is ever more desirable.
PR consultancies should capitalise on this by getting to grips with the opportunities this presents.
Post by Sophie Davidson (Producer for TNR Communications)