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Posted on 27.08.09 by Matt @ 1:46 pm
In this world of micro-marketing, twitter, being low-key, authentic and grass-rootsy, it's nice to see someone do something BIG!
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Posted on 01.08.09 by Matt @ 11:52 pm
I think the Conservative Central Office press team must have a recurring press release set up. Every two years or so they, or an MP, argure that Radio 1 really should be sold off. The main argument tends to be along the lines of "it's not public service enough" and "it's unfair to the commercial sector". Personally, I can think of nothing worse than making Radio 1 a commercial radio station. Simultaneously you'd kill off a massive amount of commercial revenue – as it transferred to Commercial Radio 1 – and you'd also make Radio 1 a more mainstream product as elements that are expensive or do not rate would gradually disappear. This is especially relevant as whoever bought it would be trying to pay back the money they borrowed to buy it. It would, in effect, be a leveraged acqusition – not something well known for producing well-funded creativity. That's not to say Radio 1 is perfect. Both it, and Radio 2, are formidable competitors. Quality aside, they have national FM frequencies (commercial radio has no national FM frequencies for pop music) and also national coverage on every UK digital platform. They have large programming budgets (over £25m each) and don't have to run any of those annoying advertising messages. They also get the benefit of cross-promotion on some of the most popular television stations and websites in the UK. At no cost to the networks. If you're a radio station, that's a pretty good deal. The BBC, across all of its activities, has to strike a difficult balance. If it's too popular it's derided for being too mainstream, if it's not popular it gets accused of not providing enough value to licence fee payers. It's a tough position to be in. But then it does receive over £3bn of our money. So, I don't shed that many tears. In the 'old days' it was much easier to defend a broad range of BBC output – it was one of few suppliers and could get away with much more. Case in point. Dallas. It was in primetime on BBC1. Nowadays, the idea of an American import in primetime on BBC1 would be unheard of. It's not that the UK don't like American serials – quite the opposite – it's just become an accepted view that that type of programming shouldn't be on primetime BBC1. The BBC's role has merely moved on and developed. I think the same thing needs to happen to the BBC's populist radio networks. It isn't about being un-entertaining. Or worthy. It's about providing high quality programmes that engage with large numbers of listeners that are not available elsewhere and perhaps would be signficantly reduced if they were to become commercial. What's a good example? Well, something like Jeremy Vine on Radio 2. It's a show that combines music, high quality guests and chat and generates significant numbers of listeners. It's perfect output for the BBC. I even think something like the Chris Moyles Show is a product that's differentiated enough to pass my three tests above (high quality, unique and a question mark over being commercially maintainable). Whilst the talent could easily adapt to a new station, I don't think the show's format (a speech-intensive, young, breakfast show) would be maintainable. I think if it disappeared there would be some genuine public-service loss. Is it a show that there would be some arguments about whether it's 'public service'? Absolutely. But I think it's worth that discussion. Should this be independently managed, by Ofcom, or have money allocated like the Arts Council? No. Just like the Dallas example, collectively we should push the BBC to ensure all of its programmes follow a similar set of the suggested rules. Hopefully it would mean that progamming without real value would gradually disappear (yes, Alan Carr on Radio 2, I am talking about you) and programmes that are left work hard to be popular and distinctive. Some may say that Radios 1 and 2 should be left alone. They're popular stations that people love and it's only commercial greed that's causing all this discussions. And there is, of course, an element of truth in that. However, what I would say, is that if you maintain the dominant position of Radios 1 and 2 you do so at a price. It is definitely not impossible, but it's much harder for any innvoation to flourish if the BBC is allowed to continue unchecked. It is a sad thing, for listeners, if new stations (or services) don't exist because of the budget, marketing and spectrum making them a dominant service – whether the output is quality or not. There are a number of great initiatives like service licences and the like, but it's on content that the BBC should be pushed harder. It's a privilege to have the spectrum, cash and marketing to be able to deliver programmes. Unprompted, the BBC should ensure that every single piece of its output is distinctive. Remember you can get these straight to your inbox by entering your email address at the top right of this page. The RSS link is up there too. Comments: 4 Comments |
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Posted on 26.06.09 by Matt @ 10:52 pm
I’ve just got back from the studio recording some links for Fun Kids, including the one that will ‘open’ the station at Midnight tonight as it moves, for a short time, to be broadcast nationwide on DAB Digital Radio through Digital One. We bought Fun Kids off of Global Radio late last year, with an idea that owning a children’s radio station is not just a good thing, but something that will make some money and hopefully we can build into a children’s brand. It’s very rewarding. And very bloody annoying. Mainly at the same time. It’s re-enforced a lot of my radio views and also opened my eyes to lots of things as well. What’s good about it, and it’s an old radio cliché, is that you can do things immediately. Also, it can be very creative. But you have to make the time to be creative. An old colleague used to block time in his diary for creative thinking. It sounds counter-intuitive but we all live such busy lives, it’s important to find a place create that ideas that make your radio station (or whatever project) special. Fun’s a very small affair, everyone who works on it does it part-time. They all have other jobs. This has meant that we get a cross-section of people’s skills – a variety of skills we couldn’t afford if everyone was full time – plus everyone’s learning a lot of new skills too. I think it’s probably the main suggestion i’d give to anyone who has a small project that needs to be worked hard to be a success. Do whatever you can to bring in more people, skills and contacts. If you do it on your own, you’ll go mad and it won’t be nearly as good. We’ve decided to go national for the Summer holidays firstly because we felt it’s something we could easily describe to the audience – it’s a Summer Holiday radio station! But also because it shows our intent. We’re a little station that’s determined to punch above its weight and to demonstrate to advertisers and listeners that they should spend some time with us. It also pushes us on, to be better, to work harder and make a better radio station. I hope that you spend some time with us, but more importantly if you know people with kids under 10 and a digital radio – make sure they tune in! Remember you can get these straight to your inbox by entering your email address at the top right of this page. The RSS link is up there too. Comments: 3 Comments |
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Posted on 31.05.09 by Matt @ 11:02 pm
Earlier today, just after Midnight, without much of a fanfare, a new digital radio station appeared on Digital One’s national commercial DAB multiplex – Amazing Radio. Amazing Radio is the sister service to the website Amazingtunes. Amazingtunes lets new bands upload music to the site so visitors can listen and buy the tracks. The revenue for these music sales is split 70% with the artists and 30% with the site itself. The radio station will play playlists (of the unsigned bands) chosen by users from their website. Choosing to go on Digital One is an interesting move for the site. It’s not a cheap thing to do (even with the launch announced as a six month pilot) and is sure to have set them back a bit of a wedge. Looking at CrunchBase, it says that AmazingTunes raised £600k in 2006 and a further £800k in 2007. I’d imagine that to achieve this expansion they will have needed to raise additional funds. However, it is a good way to promote their site. The online unsigned sector is notoriously competitive, but by going on DAB nationally it will bring the brand to nearly a third of UK (and slightly skewed to those who are interested in digital technologies and music). What’s their business model likely to be? Who’s knows. In the traditional world the station would be funded by advertising. In other words, the scale of their audience would encourage advertisers to put messages in their programming in exchange for money. This money would pay for the station and generate and additional profit. However, I don’t expect this to be the main source of revenue. An unsigned band radio station will generate a small audience and it’s unlikely to provide a large number of hours. Even with the best will in the world, a super-specialist-muso audience is still unlikely to make the station a primary listen. I think more likely the reason is to drive awareness and use of the main site – amazingtunes.com. The website is a direct to consumer proposition and a transactional site. They can derive ad revenue from online and music sales (as well as a maybe even a little commercial revenue on the radio station too). Will the radio station last for ever? Will it even make it past its six month ‘pilot’? Who knows. And to be honest does it really matter if it fails? Well, for the owners i’m sure they hope it’s a success, but to me it’s about using the flexibility of the platform and doing ‘different’ things. If there’s spare capacity and they think it can drive their business, good for them. If, along the way, some listeners get further value out of their digital radio, that’s great too. Even if their model is to get more well known so they get more users so they can sell themselves to CBS (and it might well be) then I think that’s actually fine too. If it dies on its arse, then it dies on it arse. I’d sooner we had a platform where some new ideas could fail, than not have a platform that let them try stuff out. Many existing radio groups are floundering due to fast declining commercial revenue, a strong, well-programmed BBC and a seeming lack of forward-thinking. Their traditional models are breaking down and the main response has been to do what they’ve always done, but more efficiently. This, on its own, is unlikely to be sustainable. Now, i’m not saying that they should replace Heart with an unsigned jukebox funded by micro-payments, but having a portfolio of diverse services with diverse revenue streams is probably a more sensible way forward. So good luck to Amazing Radio, and good luck to other operators who want to try and do something different. Remember you can get these straight to your inbox by entering your email address at the top right of this page. The RSS link is up there too. Comments: 2 Comments |
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Posted on 04.05.09 by Matt @ 12:27 am
I was looking at WOXY's website today, it's a radio station that describes itself as 'independent and truly alternative' and 'the future of rock and roll'. It has a neat website that reflects its programming. The thing that I really liked, though, was the photo of it's studio, which you can see above. The CD racks (whether used or not) really sells the idea that they're a broad radio station and really into their music. As well as in the promo shots it's also on the webcam too and it made me think about the generic corporate cloned studios that every UK radio station seems to have. Radio stations are really good at pushing on-air to always be on brand, but can be rubbish at ensuring off-air does the same thing. Logos, websites, presenters, PR, marketing, often falls through the cracks. How do you make sure your station is selling your message all of the time, both on and off the air. Remember you can get these straight to your inbox by entering your email address at the top right of this page. The RSS link is up there too. Comments: None |
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Posted on 19.04.09 by Matt @ 9:52 pm
A couple of weeks ago I went up to Leeds to go to the Student Radio Conference. I’ve been an on/off visitor to SRA conferences since graduating nearly ten years ago (gulp) and they’re always an interesting thing to take part in. They’re also good opportunities to catch up with people. No, not the students… the other speakers! This year I was asked to chair the final session of the conference about how to win a student radio award. This was somewhat different to my normal job of rabbitting on about digital and new media, but I guess I was asked to do it as, alongside Helen and Chris, I look after the judging process for the awards. Overall I think it went very well, and we had some good questions from the students, even some we could answer. Whilst I was on at the end, on the Wednesday, the conference started on the Monday. I was only planning on going up for my day, as it’s hard to justify three days out of the office, however when I saw the line-up of speakers, I made an exception. I genuinely think that the people they had speaking would give something like the Radio Festival a run for its money. The first day included sessions with Ben Cooper, Deputy Controller of R1, an interview with Steve Lamaq and a great piece on multi-platform from James Cridland (which I just made it up for). The second day kicked off with a keynote by Ashley Tabor. I think this is pretty much the first time he’s spoken at a radio event and an amazing coup to get him there. He gave an impassioned view of where he saw the company going and wasn’t afraid to talk about things the audience wouldn’t like – eg networking. Though I think he managed to curtail the negative responses by announcing the Global Radio Academy at the same time! The one thing that I thought was a bit cheeky were his slides that ‘proved’ that the Heart rebrand was working. With some stations on six month RAJAR periods and the dates at which Q4 covered (ie all pre-launch) actually he basically proved that the last days of the One Network were most successful. However, I thought I best not ask any questions… Second on was a session with another stellar line-up about compliance that included both Global Radio and Radio 2’s heads of compliance as well as Nick from Kerrang and David Burkin form Ofcom, ably chaired By GTN’s Will Jackson. Whilst I nipped off to do some work on Tuesday afternoon, the students got to hear from more great people including John Hirst (Global Content and Podcasts), David Garrdio (Radio 1), Mike Smith (Head of OBs at talkSPORT), James Whale and Jonathan Richards (Head of News, Global Radio), Jimmy Endicott (Marketing Manager at XFM/Galalxy), Alex Jungius (Head of Imaging, Galaxy), Ben Newby (Head of Station Sound, R1), Matt Priest and Chris Martin (NME Radio) and Sam Potts (Columbia Records). I think what’s great is that it shows some top class people willing to give up their time to help people learn about the industry and how to get on. Remember you can get these straight to your inbox by entering your email address at the top right of this page. The RSS link is up there too. Comments: 1 Comment |
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Posted on 13.04.09 by Matt @ 6:50 pm
Recently someone was talking to me about trying to get a job at a local BBC radio station and he mentioned that he felt their online offer was a bit poor. I'd agreed and said, as far as I understood, it wasn't an area that's particularly well resourced locally and he should probably steer clear of lots of web suggestions as programming's appetite for good online is probably outweighed by what they can deliver. As I was typing that out in the message I thought how rubbish is it that that's best advice I can give to someone really keen and enthusiastic. Anyway, it made me have another look at the local sites and it seems some of them are mid-way through a refresh. BBC Bristol seems to be taking the new template. Chatting to someone in the TSA, the URL they apparently give out on air is bbc.co.uk/bristol. This brings you to a Barley-esque page, which above the fold has nothing to do with the radio station. Below the fold there are two radio-ish options. You can click 'TV and Radio' (bottom left) where you can apparently "Find out more about BBC Bristol programmes" or there's a 'BBC Bristol' link, which might be radio related as there are some radio frequencies underneath it, but it seems more a heading than a link. Oh, and the box is headed TV and Radio, but the content underneath it is radio followed by TV. There's also a 'listen live' and 'listen again' that go to iPlayer and a link to a BBC Programmes-powered schedule. Oh, the links to iPlayer (live or on-demand) and the BBC Programmes schedule both give a different look and feel to each other as well as that of BBC Bristol. Just to keep it confusing. So, if I click the TV & Radio link, illustrated by a pic of the Breakfast jock, I don't got the TV & Radio section – I go to a page about presenters on BBC Bristol. If I click on the BBC Bristol headline I get a TV and Radio mini portal where the top three options, I kid you not, are: 1. BBC Radio Bristol presenters (i'll skip over the confused sudden emergence of 'Radio' that useful word that seems to have been scrubbed everywhere else) 2. Thought for the Day (a daily feature at 7.40 – okay, it's a breakfast benchmark of sorts, but is that the best thing on the show, or indeed the station?) because point number three is… 3. TV Switchover guidance (which links to an article from 8th December 2008) On the right hand side there's a nice graphic for 'BBC Bristol' (the radio station – I know this because there's frequencies). If I click this I go to an alphabetical listing of the programmes on the iPlayer. Handy. Underneath there's that BBC Bristol link again, that takes you to, er, this page. Great. If I go to the BBC Radio Bristol presenters page I get a biog that I guarantee will not be updated until they sack the presenter or refresh the site and then, I think for the first time, something useful. A list, for some, of what's on the show and how to get in touch. All of this good stuff is below the fold and most users will ignore it when they see the biog that they've seen before. I couldn't find any other content connected to the radio station on their website. At all. And I looked. With the danger of going all Daily Mail, am I the only one who finds it amazing that BBC Bristol, a radio station with 162,000 people listening for nearly 2million hours a week, doesn't warrant a better radio station website than this? I'm sure there's loads of great things in BBC Bristol's programmes and that they and the listeners experiences of them would be enhanced by some online content. Shoving it all on iPlayer does not, in any way, make up for there not being any web editorial. The station website, at the very least, should be curating this content and explaining how great it is and how people can then listen to it. Either this site isn't finished yet, in which case, it shouldn't be online. Or, more likely, no one who's ever worked at a radio station has had anything to do with it, whatsoever. If I was running BBC Bristol I think i'd refuse to give the website address on-air as I can't imagine it meeting any listener's expectations. Remember you can get these straight to your inbox by entering your email address at the top right of this page. The RSS link is up there too. Comments: 4 Comments |
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Posted on 28.03.09 by Matt @ 2:27 pm
When Twitter first started you could get your updates for free on your mobile phone through SMS. This is great, until you get more than ten friends and it starts to get annoying. What was good was that you could get DMs (direct messages) texted or just choose which followers you wanted to get SMSs from. In the US the SMS model works a little better for Twitter as some users have to pay for the texts they receive – therefore Twitter SMS is good news for telcos! In the UK its free to receive SMS so Twitter was finding itself coughing up a load of dough for sending SMS's to users, therefore it promptly turned them off. Until this week. It's announced a deal with mobile operator Vodafone to re-start it, with free texts to and from Twitter. It's likely that Twitter will gradually roll this out to other UK mobile operators over the coming months. A deal with a telco doesn't change the poor economics for Twitter, so there's got to be something in it for Vodafone if Twitter aren't paying for the texts, and there certainly is if you look at the T&Cs on Voda's website:
It makes sense for Vodafone – it's a good way for them to speak to their customers. However, this is the first time ads have appeared appended to messages – is it a sign of Twitter's future business model? Remember you can get these straight to your inbox by entering your email address at the top right of this page. The RSS link is up there too. Comments: 3 Comments |
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Posted on 24.03.09 by Matt @ 10:39 am
Great news from the Absolute Radio guys this morning, with the announcement that Absolute is going to sell Planet Rock's airtime. This is definitely going to be the first of many similar deals. It's a great combination. Absolute have a sales team that understands 'digital' in its widest form and Planet Rock is a solid radio station, with a good and growing audience. The biggest waste of money for digital-only stations are any costs that arise from them being a stand alone operation. For these stations to grow the only sensible thing to spend money on is distribution, programming and marketing. Anything else just gets in the way. For Planet Rock to have a big brother to do the airtime sales and to look after S&P themselves is eminently sensible. Airtime is hard for little guys to sell, but easy for big guys to manage. The station itself knows the brand best so having them looking after sponsorship, promotions and branded-content is a nice combination – and one that's been done successfully by many other stations in the past. In the coming weeks it would be great to hear the deal go further and have Planet Rock to move into Golden Square too. Remember you can get these straight to your inbox by entering your email address at the top right of this page. The RSS link is up there too. Comments: None |
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Posted on 23.03.09 by Matt @ 9:16 pm
News in the MediaGuardian today about the BBC's olive-branch to commercial radio with the potential creation of Listen Again for all of UK radio (commercial and BBC). At first glance this seems a good thing. Listeners do love the BBC's Listen Again/iPlayer for Radio services and are keen for commercial radio to provide the same (yes, I know some stations already do). However it does raise some interesting questions, and i'd counsel both sides to think about some of the issues this will create. Consumers love on-demand listening, it suits them, and is absolutely something all radio stations should do. At the moment consumers come through radio station websites to do this. For commercial stations this generates lots of banner impressions and allows the showcasing of other content, both commercial and non-commercial to listeners. Indeed, it's this premium content that pulls in listeners so they see some of the the er, less premium content, that we put online. If however you create a new space where they go to consume this content, they no loner need to come to your station's website – they'll go directly to the portal. My hunch would be the BBC's radio station websites have seen their usage drop since the emergence of iPlayer. If there is a portal, will it be co-branded with the BBC? Will the BBC want to limit the commercial messaging within it, they are paying for it after all. Maybe you'll get a pre-roll ad away, but what about integrations? Will you be able to brand the whole player? Will you be able to run a video-pre-roll instead? Will there be room for data capture? Can you run an MPU or an expandable? For me the interesting things about the BBC being invovled is that they get to donate:
Personally I wouldn't want to make the de facto place you consume my content on someone elses website. Whatever the good intentions. What I would like is the UK radio industry to operate something (on their own sites) that has similar functionality and design values so that UK consumers could easily find and use it. How it's dressed and integrated should be left to the broadcasters. I'd also like integration for opt-in cross-promotion. I'd like anywhere that the BBC suggests other content to include commercial radio, if relevant, as well. A funk show on Radio 2 should cross-promote a funk show on Jazz FM – if there's value to licence fee payers. I'd also hope that commercial radio station could use it to cross-promote other inter-brand content, so Global could promote Galaxy programming next to Capital's Dance Anthems. I think some commercial stations would even cross-refer back to the BBC. I know for us at Fun Kids, we'd like our station to be the tap you turn for when you want children's radio content. To that degree i'd probably be happy to link to the BBC's excellent children's content as well – especially if they were linking back. There's a great opportunity to work together for the good of UK radio, lets just not lose sight of how both sides' organisations operate. Remember you can get these straight to your inbox by entering your email address at the top right of this page. The RSS link is up there too. Tags: radio Comments: 3 Comments |
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