markettiers4dc blog - The Cast

Q4 (2009) RAJAR report figures released

nospam@example.com (Nik Harta) — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 11:56:47 +0000

Overview

One or two surprises have made themselves apparent with the latest listening figures for Quarter 4, 2009. Which is good after the damp squid that was Q3.

Wogan has held his own as he left BBC Radio 2, handing over 8.1million listeners to Chris Evans. BBC Radio 1's Chris Moyles added 200,000 listeners but what did Radio 3 do to lose 320,000 fans?

In the commercial radio sector, Heart is back as London's number one station, followed by stable-mate Capital FM. It means former champion Magic 105.4 is now number three, when counting bums on seats rather than market share. If share if your game, Magic is number one and LBC takes 2nd place.

talkSPORT has registered its highest ever market share, and Absolute is pleased with its listener loyalty.

We haven't inspected all the figures for the individual Heart's yet, but Global Radio tells us the network of 33 stations adds 300,000 listeners year-on-year – which generally means the quarter-on-quarter figures weren't as hot.

Andrew Harrison, chief executive of RadioCentre said: "The figures for local commercial radio highlight that local commercial radio is at the top of its game and delighting its audience. With an increase in listening for all radio across the board, and the number of listeners tuning into DAB showing encouraging growth, it's clear that Britain loves radio.”

Digital listening share increased marginally this quarter (11.4 per cent to 13.7), but more houses now have a DAB set, which can only be good news.

Overall, 46 million adults (45.7m last quarter) or 89.6 per cent of the UK population over 15 tuned in to their favourite radio station each week in the last quarter of 2009.

This time round, Kick FM and Kestral are not taking part in the survey, whilst Kingdom FM and Yorkshire Radio have revised TSAs. There are change of names for Pulse Classic Gold to Pulse 2 and The Coast drops the "was Original 106" tag from their station reporting title.

Local radio RAJAR round-up

BRMB has hit an all time listening low with 66,000 listeners leaving the station in the past three months, and total hours continuing to fall.

The station, which is currently claiming to be "under construction" is hoping to return to its glory days under new owners Orion Media.

In the Global portfollio, Heart Northants reports its biggest audience in five years, Heart North Devon is also benefitting from the Heart re-brand and Galaxy stations in Southampton, Scotland and the North East has shown major increase in listeners.

Looking at the independents, 3TR FM drops back down to 23 per cent reach (from 27 per cent), Brunel FM has dropped from 18,000 to 12,000 listeners, Dearne FM continues to shed listeners and Juice FM Liverpool is down in reach and hours. (Seems all stations in Liverpool have lost this quarter)

Lite FM returns to RAJAR with worse figures than when they left, with over half the hours they had a year ago and The Revolution has posted a dip in listeners this quarter, but still show an improvement on a year ago.

Meanwhile, 3FM has an impressive yearly increase, going from 22 per cent reach last year to 33 per cent today and 107 The Bee continues to enjoy a high average hours of 16.2. At Tindle, Island FM Guernsey has the highest listening share in any area, with 35.5 per cent of people in their TSA listening whilst Channel 103 Jersey gains a weekly reach of 53 per cent.

Over at the Beeb, BBC Hereford and Worcester takes a hit on the total hours, which now stands at under one million for the first time in recent history, and BBC Radio Merseyside drops 24,000 listeners to an all time low of 279,000 listeners.

Radio Norfolk is down 22 thousand people whilst Radio Nottingham lost 28 thousand listeners this quarter.

JACK fm has its highest ever listening figures with an extra 7,000 people now listening every week. General Manager Ian Walker said: “Oxfordshire clearly appreciates having a truly local radio station which doesn’t just play the same 10 songs over and over, and which continues to buck the trend of homogenised, clinical networked radio. Thank you Oxfordshire!

At UKRD / TLRC, hours are up at Spire FM, whilst 2BR, Alpha Radio, Durham FM, and Minster FM see market gains.

Commenting on the latest result for UKRD, Group Programme Director Phil Angell said, “Does anyone ever read down as far as this on a RAJAR press release? Look, some of our stations went up a bit and some of them went down a bit just like has happened with the Heart stations. Mind you, if you look closely at our 25-34 males on a Wednesday lunchtime....”

Good on ya, Phil.

talkSPORT leads the RAJAR way

nospam@example.com (Nik Harta) — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 11:56:10 +0000

UTV Radio's national sports station talkSPORT has recorded its highest ever market share, and highest ratings for breakfast, whilst Absolute Radio and Classic FM both see a drop in listeners.

But whilst most stations go down after a re brand, Absolute Radio is happy with their increase in total hours – up 2.1 per cent this quarter.

In Golden Square, Clive Dickens, Chief Operating Officer of Absolute Radio told us: “Total listening hours are a strong indicator of listener satisfaction and we are very pleased with this result."

Global Radio's Classic FM is down to a recent low of 5.1million listeners, and market share is down to 3.5. Last quarter the station was on 5.4m and 3.7 share.

talkSPORT now has a weekly reach of 2.5 million, with 1.2m tuning in to Alan Brazil and Ronnie Irani in the morning. It is the only national terrestrial station to gain listeners this quarter too.

Scott Taunton, UTV Media (GB) Chief Executive, said: “This is a fantastic result, ending what has been a great year for talkSPORT. More people are listening, they’re listening longer and we have grown market share to a record figure in the face of increased competition.

Sir Terry goes out on a high

nospam@example.com (Nik Harta) — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 11:54:41 +0000

Sir Terry Wogan has departed Radio 2 breakfast with a set of figures to be proud of, pulling in 8.1mlisteners in his final quarter on the show to match his previous record.

And listeners to the final Wake Up To Wogan will be re-united with the presenter on Radio 2 on Valentines day, as he starts his new two hour show from the Radio Theatre.

Tim Davie, Director of BBC Audio and Music, said “Terry is a legendary broadcaster and these figures show his popularity has never been higher. I’m now looking forward to tuning into his new show later this month.”

Sir Terry’s performance at breakfast helped to boost Radio 2’s weekly share to 16.5 percent, matching the network’s record high, despite a slight decline on reach from 13.62m to 13.46m.

Over at Radio 1, the stations reach and share dipped a little, to 10.76m weekly listeners and a new share of 9.9 per cent, however the reach is an improvement on last year’s figures. The Chris Moyles Breakfast show has enjoyed a lift in reach with 7.24m listeners now tuning in each week.

Radio 3 has lost 320,000 listeners in the last quarter, giving the station a new weekly reach of 1.87m and taking their share down to 1.1 percent.

Radio 4’s previous quarter seen them hit a record reach of 10.21m, it’s now back down to 9.84m but the share has climbed a little to match the network’s joint highest figure of 12.5percent.

BBC Radio 5 Live and Sports Extra now have a combined weekly audience of 6.19m, with Sports Extra contributing 663,000 of that figure. The reach is better than that of one year ago but lower than last years numbers. Share has also taken a tumble to 4.6percent.

The BBC’s digital services have also performed well, with BBC 6 Music growing their audience to 695,000, beating figures for the previous quarter and year. BBC Radio 7 is now posting an increased audience of 931,000 while BBC Asian Network and 1Xtra staying steady with audiences of 360,000 and 531,000 respectively.

BBC World Service now has a reach of 1.23m.

Heart and Capital take Magic

nospam@example.com (Nik Harta) — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 11:53:35 +0000

It's all change in London for the top three commercial radio stations, as Global takes the top two positions for number of listeners for the first time for Heart and Capital under their new owners.

Bauer Media's Magic 105.4 drops to 3rd place behind Capital FM at two and Heart 106.2 on top, for the first time in almost three years.

However, if you calculate your success by share, Magic remains on top with 6.1, and LBC enjoys the longest commercial hours at 13.6 (compared to Heart's 5.3 and Capital's 4.9).

There's not much in the numbers though, as Heart is now listened to by 1.881million, compared to Capital's 1.827 and Magic's 1.821.

Kiss is not far behind with 1.605million, whilst LBC takes 5th place with 841,000.

Elsewhere, LBC News 1152 has lost almost 150,000 listeners this quarter, and GMG's Smooth Radio loses over a quarter of its listenership dropping from 583,000 to 414,000.

Global's Ashley Tabor, Founder and Group CEO said: “This is a landmark day for Global Radio, taking the Number 1 and 2 positions in London! It’s a target that the whole team here has been working to for some time and I’m delighted the hard work has paid off.”

Richard Park, Director of Broadcasting at Global Radio said: “We have worked hard to consolidate and re-structure our brands and today’s results show our ongoing commitment is paying off. We’re absolutely delighted.”

Steve Parkinson, MD of Bauer Radio London said: “I’m especially pleased that Magic’s share is number one again."

Brands need ROI evidence to invest more in social media, says IAB

nospam@example.com (Nik Harta) — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 11:50:09 +0000

An IAB study, in partnership with Opinion Matters, surveyed 80 senior marketers and found that 88% of brands rate social media as important to their business. A third of advertisers planned to allocate between 6% and 20% of their digital marketing budgets to it this year, compared with just 14% last year.

However, there’s still great uncertainty about which department should be responsible for social media in the business. While three-quarters of respondents (73%) said social media should come under the marketing department, it was also found to be the responsibility of PR (33%), customer services (16%), research (12%) and IT teams (7%).

The biggest issue for social media is ROI, due to its qualitative nature. 74% of respondents believed that proving ROI was the greatest challenge for the social media sector. Measurement was viewed as the major stumbling block by 64%, while 57% said that more education about how to best use social media is necessary

Only 7% of respondents haven’t embraced social media in any way, but only 22% have interwoven it into core communications strategy. Of respondents, 20% feature social media in the majority of campaigns, while 23.5% opt to use the medium ad hoc and 27% have tested it with a view to using it again.

Facebook dominates mobile traffic, find first GSMA metrics

nospam@example.com (Nik Harta) — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 11:44:38 +0000

Data released by mobile operator body the GSMA has revealed Facebook dwarfs all other mobile internet traffic, accounting for almost half of total page views from the 16m people going online via their mobile in December.

Initial Mobile Media Metrics (MMM) data from three operators shows 16m unique users viewed 6.7bn pages, spending 4.8bn minutes online during December.

This number will grow following the addition of data from T-Mobile and 3 within weeks.

The top ten sites browsed accounted for 70% of total page views and time spent online via mobile. Facebook was the most popular site with almost 5m unique users, ahead of Google with 4.57m visitors. O2, Orange and Vodafone portals followed, ahead of Yahoo, the BBC and Microsoft.

Mobile domains owned by Apple and Nokia made up the remainder of the top ten sites.

Facebook also claimed the lion’s share of total page views, with 2.64bn in December, beating Google into second place with 894.3m page views. Bebo, Ebay and Flirtomatic also appeared in the top ten sites with the highest page views.

Facebook saw the most amount of time spent on its mobile site in December, accounting for 2.16bn minutes during the month, with Google again second, claiming 395.6m minutes.

Farewell to a pop icon…

nospam@example.com (Holly Burrows) — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 23:00:00 +0000

As this morning’s sad news broke that ‘King of Pop’ Michael Jackson has passed away, a sad day for pop music and fans worldwide – but it also brought with it a wave of emotion across the internet and a new era of online mourning. Previous iconic losses like Diana, John Lennon, Elvis have impacted the public but never before have we had such an icon die at a time when the media generation is at its’ most ripe – which saw the breaking news spreading globally in just seconds….

Already Michael Jackson has taken up a third of all twitter subjects – including celebrity tweets of condolence including Demi Moore and P Diddy, and according to the London Evening Standard the mass of online users wanting to clarify the singer's death caused even Google's software to play up – with its computers used for running the news section to interpret the "Michael Jackson" requests as an automated attack for around half an hour.

This morning, of the top ten most popular web topics – 6 of them revolved around the Jackson news, the BBC News website also reported at 4am that its UK web traffic was up 48% than usual. Further to this the news has led to an unprecedented rise in Michael Jackson online music sales – taking up the Top 15 places on Amazon.com's bestsellers list. iTunes has also been bombarded – with three other Jackson singles and albums in the top 25. The news first broke on American site www.tmz.com this morning which reported it was "looking bad" for the star – the overload of interest meant the site actually went down temporarily, yet of course the news is still being spread via blogs, twitter and social networking sites ….and continues to do so…..

BBC next on the expenses shame list

nospam@example.com (Holly Burrows) — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 23:00:00 +0000

The BBC are in the spotlight today – following calls for BBC executives expenses to be revealed after fears they could be wasting public funds.

The announcement comes after the recent release of the Digital Britain Report this month – which states part of BBC licence fee is to be used to fund universal broadband access.

Recent high profile revelations and uproar about MPs expenses is also most likely to have contributed to the call for expenses to be published – with public funded companies like the BBC now expected to be much more open and accountable for spend of the publics licence fee money.

This morning the BBC released five year’s worth of expenses claims of 10 of their executive board members – including champagne for Bruce Forsyth, a ‘replacement’ handbag, two iPods, extreme petrol claims and more.

You can view the expenses online for past and present BBC executive directors from 2004/2005 – 2008/2009 financial year, as well as individual expenses for the current 10 BBC executives, including Mark Thompson’s expenses, Director General of the BBC.

The information was released following a new policy by the BBC to publish salary and expenses details from now on, including details of its top 50 executives and decision-makers – even Director General of the BBC Mark Thompson claimed £2,236.90 on October 30, 2008 to fly family back in the midst of the Sachgate affair – with justification from the BBC stating: "The Director General ended his family holiday early in order to deal with the issue relating to the Russell Brand show. The Chairman of the Audit Committee of the Executive Board agreed that the expense of cutting a family holiday short would be met by the BBC in advance of the claim being made. The Chairman of the BBC Trust was also informed."

Thompson himself claimed £9,000 in expenses last year saying: "top talent costs perhaps 2% of the licence fee", approximately £72m. Thompson also claimed government policymakers were "ideologically focused" on negative funding systems of the BBC, which jeopardised "the independence and ability of the BBC to deliver its services".

Despite the release of such private documents, it has been said that some sensitive information has been removed citing an exemption in the ‘Freedom of Information Act’ allowing to conceal information related to its "journalism, art or literature".

So how much of our money is being spent? It seems last year saw the BBC's top 10 executives claimed a total of £145,000 on expenses – and this is not the first time executive and channel controller claims have gone public.

Mark Thompson was speaking at the Chartered Institute of Public Finances and Accountancy's annual conference in Manchester at time of the breaking news, saying that the trust and the BBC's executive board had "strongly encouraged us to look at whether we could and should go further in our practice of routine disclosure".

The Department for Culture said it was "disappointed" with his comments.

So how will this affect the BBC and its future spending structure? Things are certainly changing – from the recession to a reform in government expenses guidelines (and indeed now a new, more modern speaker of The House of Commons as a result), and frivolous unjustifiable spending is no longer tolerable. Will this lead to the public dictating how the BBC spends its money – perhaps one day we could have even have a vote on this like political elections?

In short – the public pay for the BBC so surely we have the right to see how our money is spent….

Next Digital Report under scrutiny as Lord Carter set to step down….

nospam@example.com (Holly Burrows) — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 23:00:00 +0000

Surprising rumours in the Digital World broke today – that Lord Carter is set to step down from Government on the eve of his upcoming Digital Britain Report.

The Minister for Communications, Technology and Broadcasting is currently preparing the eagerly anticipated next big Digital Britain Report, (which shapes the Government approach to digital media distribution) at a time where much is changing in the digital landscape. So now the report which looks at Government policy on public service broadcasting, local media ownership rules and digital radio switchover, and more – had been left in the balance at a crucial time.

His departure was neither confirmed or denied by the Department for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform or the Department for Culture, Media and Sport – to whom he is accountable, which further added speculation that he could in fact be going for the position of ITV chief executive (having been unsuccessful with the ITV role three years ago).

As the Times reported today, Lord Carter is due to return to the private sector. Lord Carter himself did not deny the claims either, telling The Times: "I'm beavering away feverishly on my report, that's my only preoccupation".

So what does this mean for the communications industry? Considering the Report determines the development of UK digital media, it therefore seems compromising that Lord Carter might move to a media company (which is having to focus strongly on its own digital direction in order to survive).

Will this move by Carter – so close to the release date of the report - jeopardise the credibility of the report (and Carter himself), and leave some feeling the report might now be biased toward the interests of the media companies, over the individual?

Another area of controversy is the fact that Lord Carter now has knowledge of commercially sensitive information on the BBC and Channel 4 – direct competition of ITV. So what will next week’s report bring and will be Lord Carter still be there? Wait and see…..

The truth about Twitter….

nospam@example.com (Holly Burrows) — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 23:00:00 +0000

How to close the honesty gap between bloggers and newspapers?

Last week Twitter reported The Mirror had ‘tweeted’ online that Phil Spector (music producer jailed for murder), had used Twitter to complain that his wig was confiscated in jail. The story was a high profile news piece….however, one snag – it wasn’t true!

The day after the story broke, ‘Phil Spector’ (aka the anonymous person behind the Twitter comments), revealed it was infact a prank. This is all very well…but of course, Mirror readers did not/do not know. After all, they have read and consumed the story, and most likely spread it by word-of-mouth and in their own online forums also.

So the story remains on the web, and further irate user comments stoking the flames of controversy: "What's Phil Spector – or any other convicted murderer for that matter - doing with a computer in jail?...Spector should have no such luxuries…”

The Telegraph covered the story twice – firstly believing the joke and running with the headline: ‘Phil Spector complains about prison confiscating his wig on Twitter’, then running the blog practical joke revelation story separately after – with no correction or link to let readers know it is inaccurate at all.

So how come mainstream media do not follow this rule?

A recent example pointed out by Martin Belam (Currybetdot.net) where local newspaper, Birmingham Mail, blogged inaccurately on an ex-Aston Villa footballer – yet instead of ignoring this, the journalist acknowledged and corrected her own article, ensuring she did not edit/remove any inaccuracies but simply, honestly and openly corrected the mistakes.

With content freeloading being an issue for newspapers, copyright issues for Google, as well as blogging – often blamed on providing opinion and getting factual evidence for free – should we trust everything we read? Traditional journalism is not always quick to correct, remove or apologise for inaccuracies – unlike digital journalists who are perhaps more instant and honest with their reactions.

Of course it is becoming more frequent for ordinary people to reveal breaking news (citizen journalism) ahead of the media (via twitter/camera phones etc), but surely it is common practise for well regarded media brands to conduct themselves via a set of journalistic principles which moderate breaking news fast and accurately….which in theory, is why this source should be more trusted.

Who will be the first to report if/when Gordon Brown leaves government? And if/when you do read this news….you might want to make sure it is infact true before you announce it to your friends and colleagues, shout it out on twitter, or blog to your clients about it…

Murdoch to charge for online newspaper websites

nospam@example.com (Holly Burrows) — Wed, 06 May 2009 23:00:00 +0000

This morning the world’s most powerful media mogul, Rupert Murdoch, made the bold statement that free internet will soon be over.
Rupert Murdoch declared News Corporation will soon charge for newspaper websites and that he expects to start charging for access within a year because according to Murdoch: “having free newspaper websites is a 'flawed' business model”.
It seems his Wall Street Journal online subscription revenues are what has opened the debate on whether to charge, particularly at such a shaky time for the press, explaining: "That it is possible to charge for content on the web is obvious from the Wall Street Journal's experience."
The whole of Murdoch’s empire will be considered in this decision – with UK publications the Times, the Sunday Times, the Sun and the News of the World also in the online payment shift discussions, Murdoch said: "within the next 12 months‚" adding: "The current days of the internet will soon be over." A dramatic change to our online rights indeed.
Ad revenue in Britain fell by 21% and Murdoch revealed the Sunday Times is struggling with the tabloids doing better thanks to supermarkets’ print promotion spend. News Corp, like many large media organisations, has had to cut 3,000 jobs over the last year, although interestingly minimal journalists or "creative" personnel according to Murdoch.
But Murdoch is looking at this new option with optimism….
On the recession and state of the media in today’s climate, Murdoch this morning joked: "I'm not an economist and we all know economists were created to make weather forecasters look good," He also went on to say: "But it is increasingly clear the worst is over", predicting: "There are encouraging signs in some of our businesses that the days of precipitous declines are done, and things are beginning to look healthier."
But News Corp revealed that its interactive media division, which includes MySpace, had actually done less well. MySpace management was recently replaced as News Corp struggled to build a steady profit – yet Murdoch, renowned blunt business man, rejected competition from its larger rival, Facebook saying: "We're not going for the Facebook model of getting hundreds and hundreds of million of people who don't bring any advertising with them at all," he said.
The BBC also struck a similar chord recently by highlighting that people who watch online programmes are not obliged to pay for a TV licence and the BBC were also considering potential new ways to collect fees for content. The BBC last month argued that recent advances in the way people access television content need to be looked at, saying: "Legislative change is likely to be required in order to reflect technology changes in the licence fee regulations."
So will this new step by Murdoch to charge for online content pave the way for all other non financial newspaper websites? Will this see us revert to buying a good old fashioned newspaper to read on the train – or will we stick to our online and convenient media consumption? More importantly, will people begrudge paying a fee on principle? What will happen in this battle over content rights and whether one should pay or not?
Will someone as influential as Murdoch change the face of online newspapers, and will others follow suit – or will this end up isolating the News Corp brand and enable its ‘online friendly and free’ competitors to benefit? Get your money worth now and log on….

A first for the BBC – as they offer resources to news services in a bid to save regional news

nospam@example.com (Holly Burrows) — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 23:00:00 +0000

Today an industry summit in Westminster, hosted by culture secretary, Andy Burnham is reported to reveal further details of the BBC’s (unprecedented) plans – which will see the BBC share its resources with TV, newspapers and radio stations for the first time, with the aim of saving regional news organisations.

The summit – put in place to discuss the recent newspaper crisis concerning the recent fall in advertising revenues, gathered industry leaders from the BBC, ITV, ITN and Channel 4 as well as editors and publishers of national, regional and local press including Helen Boaden, Head of News for the BBC, and controller of the English regions, David Holdsworth.

The event was set up to help struggling local newspapers in particular – with Burnham himself a supporter of local media, and looking to help find a solution to the ongoing problems.

A positive move by the BBC which is set to provide content for local newspapers and free video content access for their websites – plus free access and training to its school of journalism, sharing audio content with community and local radio reporters, and access to BBC iPlayer technology also.

The concept of sharing resources has apparently been discussed by the BBC for quite a while now, with ITV also agreeing to share studio space to support regional news services in a similar deal. The BBC and ITV have an existing agreement with ITV, scaling back their regional news operations, and sharing BBC's studio space and production facilities. National newspapers including the Daily Telegraph as well as local TV stations such as Manchester based Channel M (owned by the Media Guardian Group) will also be on board the new plans it seems.

A senior BBC source said of the new plans: “The industry needs to pull together to weather the financial storm. While the BBC is also facing significant economic challenges, it can play a valuable role in underpinning public service broadcasting, and in helping to ensure wider choice and diversity, at a time when the industry is grappling with huge strategic challenges.”

So is this never before step by the BBC a result of government pressure to help save commercial rivals with their guaranteed licence fee income – or the BBC beating them to it? Surely the BBC is benefiting by striking up partnerships on its own before it is pushed to do so – and these talks will indeed help shape the government's response which communications minister Lord Carter, will announce in his final Digital Britain report in the summer.

This new concept of sharing resources and enabling partnerships to stretch further – not just within broadcast but including other local and national media also, must be considered a good move in the media world – for all parties involved. Merging these communications industries is set to produce a new era of cooperation, so let’s see how these new friendships develop…

markettiers4dc have been championing 15 years of convergence so nice to see the big boys catching up with us!

Ofcom back local radio content

nospam@example.com (Holly Burrows) — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 23:00:00 +0000

This week two commercial radio stations were warned by Media regulator Ofcom for not broadcasting enough local content – both Bath FM and Swindon based Brunel FM (both owned by independent broadcaster South West Radio) were told off for neglecting local content and told to resolve this.

Ofcom monitored the stations, reporting that the vast majority of Bath FM’s output was made up of music on loop and repetitive commercials, and its news bulletins were all national provided by an external supplier leaving out all local stories….it seems the presenters were not even on air between 10am and 2pm! Brunel FM was the same – no presenters between 11am and 2pm or local material and a "general lack of non-music content".

Following the warning from Ofcom and further monitoring, they said of the findings "We considered that the overall editorial quality of local news bulletins we heard on both stations during the [January] monitoring period was poor, particularly in the sense that the local bulletins were all pre-recorded and constantly repeated," the watchdog stated.

Ofcom went on to say "This is inconsistent with Ofcom's published localness guidelines and, on that basis, the requirement in Bath FM's format for the station to have 'a strong commitment to local news' or Brunel FM's format requirement to be a 'friendly, locally involved radio station…focusing on local news.'"

More worryingly, the examination brought to light the stations use of old content and their "..failure to deliver other local material satisfactorily was exacerbated by automation problems, which meant out-of-date material was sometimes broadcast," Ofcom said.

In response to being told off, South West Radio acknowledged this was "not acceptable" and plan to redeem themselves by introducing a local lunch time show on both stations and devoting more air time to local shows and content.

Ofcom continue to monitor stations and support for local content and news, so perhaps a reminder to other stations and brands of course, of the importance of local information.

(Click here for a free map covering all commercial radio stations across the UK or for advice on localising your next campaign).

iPlayer set to hit the airwaves

nospam@example.com (Holly Burrows) — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 23:00:00 +0000

Last week the BBC revealed exciting new plans for a new Radio iPlayer equivalent – which would mean making radio content just as accessible as TV.

The BBC’s idea to create an on-demand, catch-up service for UK radio looks like there may soon be a downloadable radio service for listeners, meaning Radio listeners will no longer be made to search commercial stations such as Capital Radio or Heart FM on individual websites. BBC are in talks with commercial radio stations to showcase all UK radio so every radio station in Britain will be put on one website by the BBC (to also fit with its plans to create more 'partnerships' and protect its £3.5bn annual licence).

Tim Davie, Head of Audio and Music for the BBC, wants to introduce this service to all broadcasters to make all radio programmes downloadable from one place. This will mean listeners (and PRs chasing coverage!) can find missed radio programmes in one place (with BBC programmes sitting side by side with commercial programmes).

This could also be a positive move following the recent government Digital Britain Report, and could increase the popularity of digital radio.

James, Head of Future Media & Technology for BBC Audio & Music Interactive stressed it is still early days for the new venture, so discussions between the BBC and commercial radio across the UK to gauge opinions are still in motion.

Longer-term proposals include ‘Radio Plus’, similar to that of Sky+ to operate across digital devices to offer the sort of pre-booking services found on Sky+ and other personal video recorders.

So will a Radio iPlayer version be as popular as it is online – and will it attract the audience levels and success of the current BBC iPlayer? It will certainly be useful for us as PROs chasing coverage, and also offer convenience for listeners to play back radio programmes as and when they choose. We will have to wait and see if it reaches the phenomenal success levels of the BBC iPlayer….

Switch on to ‘Sun Talk’ – is this the model for the future?

nospam@example.com (Holly Burrows) — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Today The Sun will reveal details of its plans to launch a new online radio station – a first for The Sun, and UK newspapers.

Publishers such as the Telegraph Media Group have invested in launching Telegraph TV, and Guardian News and Guardian Media also produce well-received podcasts and video.

However, to date no newspaper has launched an audio-only, online radio station – so a first and perhaps model for the future?

‘Sun Talk’ goes live in a month’s time, April 20 and is set to run from their new purpose-built £1million multimedia studios from its Wapping headquarters.

Former TalkSPORT host Jon Gaunt, The Sun columnist will be hosting their first programme, a three hour morning show set to feature Conservative leader David Cameron MP as its first guest (a bold statement in itself). According to a Wapping source, the new station aims to reach 150,000 listeners in year one, but it is not clear whether The Sun’s three million readers will take the time out of their day to tune in….

The sunonline.co.uk reached 21.9 million unique users to its site during January 2009, according to ABCE. So will its new radio station and audience loyalty transfer to online radio also?

Journalists will be able to use the studios for all of its titles (The Sun, The Times, The Sunday Times and News of the World), and is part of the bigger picture for News International’s vision to expand its audio and video content – and step up its media/digital activity.

markettiers4dc are already ahead of the game – having embraced the concept of convergence for a long time now with our onsite TV and Radio studios, enabling us to produce content via live or pre-recorded items, WebTV online (live, interactive or on-demand), podcasts, vodcasts and more as and when we wish. So now the big boys are also branching out into integrating mediums, does this mean The Sun will pave the way for more?

Certainly, if a force as strong as News International Corporation is moving into convergence then surely this is a sign of things to come? And unless companies keep up with this, and use these modern channels to communicate with their audiences – then are they in danger of getting left behind?

Learn more about convergence come to one of our workshops here in our studios.