Radio Is Facing A Form Of Darwinism

Erik Portier, from Targetspot, said that the skies were blue for radio sales, as long as broadcasters were willing to look the right way. 

Erik said that radio was facing a form of Darwinism. Radio stations which can adapt to a digital audience will survive, but others may not. 

We’ve seen this happen in other media, including news publishers and newspapers, and there are some learnings we can take from them. Whilst they had a strategy to counter the decline in revenues, it didn’t go far enough! The internet companies should have been investing more into their products and services, according to Erik. 

What will happen in the next 10 years? Erik explained that radio would remain flat: “There will be an end to the division between digital and traditional” he said. He went onto explain that big organisations will move away from agencies and start doing things in-house. With decreasing revenues, audio needs a new currency, specific audio metrics, and its own attribution model.

Erik then talked about what was disrupting things in the market. Firstly audiences are now more dispersed amongst different platforms and station’s share of ear is going down. Secondly, smart speakers are now offering advertising and there are too many commission fees taking a cut on the revenue.

How do we solve all of this? Radio needs to change, and fast. It needs a new attribution model and new measurement metrics to make it competitive.