Summ’it aims to connect audiences through audio storytelling
GENEVA — Broadcast versus online is a frequent debate within the radio industry. But it is a false one. Broadcast is not a relic but rather a core infrastructure that provides what online platforms cannot: Universal reach, resilience and instant, free public access.
Although streaming is growing and online listening is part of radio’s future, online delivery cannot replace terrestrial broadcasting. Online depends on data networks, devices, apps and platform ecosystems that can fail, fragment and exclude people. Broadcast radio does not have those limitations. This is why analog and digital broadcasts remain essential to the sector’s future.
Broadcast radio is the most democratic form of mass audio distribution. It can reach everyone, regardless of income, geography, or digital literacy. While online audio is increasingly important, it is not universally available in practice. It depends on broadband coverage, the affordability of mobile data, device compatibility and, more worryingly, the choices of platform gatekeepers. Broadcast radio does not. It delivers the same signal to everyone at the same time, free of charge, without harvesting listeners’ data.
If the goal is to preserve radio’s public value, then terrestrial broadcasting must remain central to the conversation. This is a critical public interest argument, and the industry should promote it more aggressively. If radio is supposed to serve the whole population, then the distribution model must be open, simple and universal.
Broadcast plus digital
The case for terrestrial radio is not just about nostalgia for analog. Digital terrestrial radio, especially DAB+, represents the next logical step for many markets. It provides a stronger platform for future services, including greater capacity, improved metadata, more efficient spectrum use, lower energy consumption and advanced emergency warning systems, such as the Automatic Safety Alert system embedded in DAB+.
However, digital terrestrial radio will only succeed if the sector continues to prioritize broadcast as its distribution backbone and invests in it. The choice is not between broadcast and digital — it is broadcast plus digital versus dependence on online-only delivery.
FM still has enormous value because it is simple, robust and ingrained in the listening habits of millions. DAB+ strengthens this proposition by creating space for more innovative services while maintaining a gatekeeper-free environment.
Online audio cannot replace terrestrial radio. It adds value through catch-up services, personalization, richer analytics and cross-platform discovery, not to mention the possibilities opened by podcasts. Online offers a valuable extension of the radio brand and an important way to reach younger, digital-native audiences. The industry should embrace it.
But online listening is built on infrastructure that radio does not control. It relies on digital networks, car manufacturers, operating systems, device ecosystems and third-party platforms. Additionally, it is vulnerable to congestion, outages, commercial barriers and fragmentation. In a crisis, this is not acceptable.
Built for resilience
The audio broadcasting sector should stop framing this as a technology choice and start framing it as a resilience choice. A serious radio strategy requires both digital innovation and guaranteed broadcast access.
Broadcast networks are built to deliver content to large audiences simultaneously, without relying on the same infrastructure that powers online media. This distinction becomes crucial in an emergency, when reliability is not just a nice-to-have but a public asset that can save lives.
When storms, floods, blackouts, cyberattacks or armed conflicts disrupt power or data networks, terrestrial radio often remains available. It can continue to deliver emergency warnings, official instructions and trusted news without the need for a subscription, a platform account or data connection. In crisis conditions, this built-in reliability is a decisive advantage.
Broadcasters are a key part of emergency warning systems. They can interrupt regular programming to deliver urgent messages and reach people even when they are not actively seeking information. Direct alerts can also be sent to in-vehicle radios, even waking them up if they are switched off.
Radio is both content and infrastructure. Therefore, broadcasters and policymakers should protect terrestrial radio, support the roll-out of digital terrestrial radio, safeguard radio access in vehicles, and ensure that radio remains easy to find in vehicles and across devices. They should also recognize broadcast radio as part of national resilience and emergency communication planning.
That is the industry case: Radio is not just surviving; it is essential, and online amplifies audio broadcasting, it does not kill it.
In an increasingly unreliable world, radio’s strength lies in its reliability: It works when other systems fail, reaches everyone, remains trusted and delivers public value at scale. This is not a legacy argument — it is a strategic imperative.
The author is co-founder and research director at South 180.
This story originally appeared in the May/June 2026 edition of RedTech Magazine. You can read or download that edition for free here.
You can access all past RedTech publications, also for free, here.
