Broadcasters need to protect their access to listeners as commercial platforms become leading channels for news discovery, speakers said at the EBU Audio and Radio Futures Forum, held Oct. 14–15 in Baden-Baden, Germany.
The European Broadcasting Union’s Media Intelligence data showed that European audiences still spend most of their audio listening time on live radio, including younger listeners. But Maxi-Josephine Rauch, a platform economist at Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, said commercial platforms now lead news discovery across age groups. She argued that public-service broadcasters need shared infrastructure or a European public-interest platform to compete, since a standalone broadcaster app lacks the network effects of a platform.
One response discussed at the forum was ARD Sounds, the audio app from ARD, Germany’s public-service broadcasting consortium. ARD is gradually bringing more than 40 audio apps together in the service. It reported that September reach was more than 70% higher than that of its former ARD Audiothek, while radio listening in the app rose 227% after the March relaunch. The service is also intended to reduce dependence on major technology platforms while retaining individual station identities.
The forum also examined how broadcasters can apply artificial intelligence. Marie Kilg, an AI consultant and former chief AI officer at Deutsche Welle, urged broadcasters to focus on tasks with clear outcomes and business cases, such as transcription, audio leveling and weather or traffic updates. She emphasized that people still need to make decisions and remain accountable, particularly in higher-risk cases.
ARD and SWR, the public broadcaster for southwest Germany, hosted the annual forum. The EBU has made selected session recordings, including talks on AI, platform economics and ARD Sounds, publicly available.
- You can see the welcome video presented by Thomas Jung, Michael Eberhard and Christian Hufnagel, moderated by Julia Nestlen, here.
- You can see the “Beyond the hype: Future-proofing audio with AI” video presented by Kilg here.
- You can see the “Platforms and public service audio and radio” video presented by Rauch here.
- You can see the “Inside ARD Sounds: Big change, a successful launch, and what comes next” video presented by Stefan Köhler, who leads program management at ARD Sounds, here.
These stories might interest you
From the airwaves to the concert hall
