Laurence Harrison, Chief Partnerships Officer at Radioplayer, opened the ‘Reclaiming the dashboard – putting radio back in control’ session by reiterating the point that Radioplayer is owned by broadcasters, and they are working on their behalf.
There are three main obstacles that Radioplayer is looking to overcome when it comes to modern day radio usage in the car: addressing issues of complexity, content availability, and creating a viable roadmap.
They intend to navigate these hurdles by aiming to secure prominence – using the mantra radio always everywhere -, creating an amazing user experience, which if done correctly should help gain the intended prominence, and finally focus on the user – the listener in the car comes first.
An end goal is a single, unified experience, which bridges the gap and enables users to take a deep dive into your content.
Advancements are already being made, with a prototype dashboard on display at Radiodays Europe showcasing a hybrid radio interface, and synced entertainment systems – meaning you can seamlessly continue to listen to the radio straight from your car to connect devices, such as smartphones and smart TVs.
Laurence emphasised that Radioplayer is putting listeners and radio first, adding: “The features we implement will work for you.”
Following Radioplayer’s presentation, a panel consisting of Gwendolin Niehues, Head of Partner Management – Audio and Voice, ARD, Stefan Moller, President, AER – Association of European Radios, and Yann Legarson, CEO of Radioplayer, offered their thoughts on the future of radio in automobiles.
Gwendolin noted: “Apps are important, but we know that radio listening is the vast majority of audio consumption in the car.
“We are so excited by the idea of linking out of the radio and bridging the gap. If we manage to make radio a more interesting and modern experience it’s going to be easier, alongside legislation, to convince car manufacturers to have a radio button.”
Yann spoke about the importance of ease for consumers to listen to the radio in the car, saying: “What we are trying to do is convince the car makers, not about the importance of radio news talk, but radio in general.
“You need to keep the simple access, we don’t want to be in the middle of nowhere, in the middle of 40 apps. For the listeners it’s good to have everything in one place.”
Whilst Stefan pondered: “In a perfect world, wouldn’t it be nice that radio would be mandatory in the car?
“Like by law you need seatbelts, you need to have a radio receiver. It has so much more to do with it than entertainment, it’s also about security and safety.
When contemplating what the future might look like, Stefan joked that he would love cars to be widely accepted as a ‘radio on wheels’.
image © Afroditi Zaggana
