James Cridland

Ofcom's news rules to cool FM band?

Radiodays Asia 2019

Above: Radiodays Asia in 2019. Radiodays Europe is just a few weeks away.

In the UK, RadioToday reports that media regulator Ofcom is to require local analogue radio licences in the UK to air local news between 6a-7p weekdays. The regulator says: “This local news must consist of or include some news which has been locally-gathered by journalists physically present in the relevant areas.” Most stations have one year to comply.

Most local analogue radio licences in the UK carry national (or nation) programming these days, from the likes of Global’s Heart, Capital or Smooth, Bauer’s Hits Radio or Greatest Hits Radio, or Nation Broadcasting’s Nation Radio. Those stations do carry local news, weather and advertising. However, this rule is potentially onerous for broadcasters: Ofcom estimate it’ll cost the industry an additional £340,000 (US $457,000) a year.

As a broadcaster, if you don’t fancy the idea of paying at least two journalist salaries as news-gatherers for each analogue licence, you do have another option available to you - to simply hand back your licence. And that’s not as ridiculous as it might seem. In total, only 25.4% of all UK radio is listened-to on AM/FM any more - the rest is through DAB or online; and while some local stations will see more listening share through analogue, that figure will only go down.

In the UK, appearance on your local DAB multiplex (which gets 42% of all radio listening) is not contingent on you owning an analogue licence in the area. So you can just hand your analogue licence back with no real penalty. Many AM services have been - and Ofcom hasn’t readvertised any licences who have. Indeed, last year, Nation Radio reacted to Ofcom’s consultation about local news provision by surrendering their Ceredigion licence in Wales.

Just weeks after the UK government announced a review into continued FM and AM broadcasting in the UK, it would seem that stronger regulation might hasten analogue switch-off in the country.

RCS

Classifieds

  • Supercharge your radio show with world-class prep: the right show prep delivered to you on time, EVERY day, without fail. Grab a £1 week-long trial of Show Prep and stop chasing round looking for things to use on your show, running out of time before the show, and trying to sight-read the newspapers!

  • In the US, a historic moment: podcasts are now bigger than spoken-word radio. So says Edison Research at SSRS, from its Share of Ear study. The graph, which I reproduced in Podnews on Friday, shows a significant drop in radio’s share of spoken-word audio time over the last ten years: and 2025 is the year when podcasting finally overtook radio.

    • 25% of all daily audio time in the US is spent with “spoken-word” audio, says the research company. That suggests that the vast majority of listening is to music; but (as you’ll hear in my Radiodays Europe speech), radio has less of a unique selling proposition for music than spoken-word.

  • Edison Research also publishes The Infinite Dial - to be presented in a webinar on Thursday Mar 12, 2pm ET. I’m thrilled to, once more, be co-presenting the study along with VP of Edison Research at SSRS, Megan Lazovick. Please join us! It’s the research that gives us the Big Number about podcasting: how many people listen in the US; but there’s plenty more besides. This year - never-before-seen data on AI usage.

  • Back in the UK, The Radio Academy - where I was once a trustee - has become The Audio Academy. Both simultaneously the right change, I believe, but also hard to see it as good news for radio.

  • Australian radio network ARN, the home of Kyle & Jackie O, released its financial results. Revenue is down -10%. Profit down -30%. More job cuts were announced; details are to follow. Current market cap is $109.5mn (down -45.7% in the last year). $109mn is roughly half the value of Kyle & Jackie O’s contract.

    • The Kyle and Jackie O Effect: How They Messed Up The Radio Industry is an article on a new (to me) radio website, commradio Australia (not to be confused with the CRA). It argues that the show is responsible for significant cost-cutting throughout ARN. Jackie O was off all last week, after a bad argument on-air. Radioinfo reports that Kyle didn’t bother coming in on Thursday either (he was apparently unwell). It’s the end of the first survey for Australian radio ratings: numbers for these six weeks - unusually, not merged with a previous survey’s data - come out on Mar 19.
    • Another week, and the ACMA, the world’s weakest media regulator, still hasn’t made a decision about the licence conditions for the show.

  • “Do we make podcasts that are essentially television? Or, do we pursue and deepen our relationship with sound, and its imaginative possibilities?” Siobhán McHugh spoke at the Radio and Audio Studies Symposium last month - “Viva the narrative podcast - the case against video”. You can watch the full keynote online, or, you can read the full speech. Worth reading with a radio hat on, as well.

  • In Wade Kingsley’s The Quarter Hour podcast, we hear from the Australian music industry. Australia has a music quota, much like Canada or France; Annabelle Herd, who is both CEO of the Australian Recording Industry Association and of rights-holder PPCA, says good things about radio, but also suggests that radio has a responsibility to promote local music. (I’m assuming that my conversation with Stingray’s Steve Jones at Radiodays Europe will touch on Canadian Content, incidentally - there’ll also be a lot of talk about TuneIn, which Stingray now own). Meanwhile, The Media Club with Matt Deegan talks about more government regulation in the UK for television, and Clive Dickens from Meliora talks more AI. And reminder that this newsletter is also a podcast: Radioland is available wherever you get your podcasts (but, be warned, it’s not very highly edited).

  • Random radio ratings corner: From the Netherlands, here’s the annual report from trade organisation Audify, which shows audio ad revenue, radio listening (around 89% weekly reach), and radio platforms - only 28% of total hours to FM, and none listed for AM at all).

Thank you to John McDermott, who bought me three coffees to thank me for the New Podcasts trailer feed. Kind of you, John!

Where I am speaking next

  • Radiodays Europe, Riga, Latvia, (Mar 22-24)
    • The future of audio is people-powered: The way people consume media is changing. James Cridland, the radio futurologist, takes a look at global trends in radio and on-demand. How will we listen - on which devices? How can we make our output truly unique? How do we do it in a resource-efficient way? And what part does video play in the future of audio? In this wide-ranging session, bringing together data from North America, Asia, Australia and Europe, we’ll learn why the future is bright - as long as we understand why our audience comes to us in the first place.
    • I’m also talking with Steve Jones of Stingray, on TuneIn, Canadian radio, and more.
  • The Podcast Show, London UK (May 20-21) - I’ll be keynoting at this event, as well as recording a Podnews Weekly Review.

Supporters

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