GENEVA — We do not know much about children’s radio consumption.
Official radio measurement systems only partially measure this target group and only in a few markets. However, this doesn’t discourage several broadcasters that run dedicated children’s services.
In a recent analysis, I identified 22 European radio stations that target children. These stations represent a wide range of target age groups, from babies to teens. Typically, these stations play a mix of dedicated children’s programs, a selection of music — including lullabies — and stories, including bedtime stories. They often also target parents with programs to discuss parenting issues.
The stations are available in 16 countries in 15 languages, meaning that two-thirds of the countries do not have this service in the market. Regarding ownership, nine of them are run by public service broadcasters, while 13 are commercially funded. Some are part of large groups, such as Toggo Radio in Germany, part of Super RTL, or Pigy Rádio in the Czech Republic, part of Active Group.
Others are small stations that recruit volunteers, such as Vaiky Radijas in Lithuania, or belong to a nonprofit association, such as Pequeradio in Spain.
DAB+ has allowed children’s radio to flourish
Aggregators playing their cards
DAB+ has allowed children’s radio to flourish — 15 of the children’s stations distribute their signal digitally, while nine rely on FM. Only two services have both FM and DAB+ distribution.
As you might expect, all these services are also available online. They often offer a simulcast of their station and unique on-demand content. However, there is more competition.
There are around 90 online-only streams aimed at children in Europe. Some belong to the same broadcaster, which has expanded its offerings through spinoffs, such as Fun Kids in the U.K. and Toggo Radio, with seven and 14 additional streams, respectively.
Aggregators are playing their cards, too. The Airi app claims to be the first global radio app for kids, bringing together more than 250 dedicated radio stations from around the world. It is a premium service that costs €1.99 per month (about US$2.00), with a premium+ service that adds dedicated programming for €3.99 (approx. $4.10) per month. Spotify also targets children in selected markets with its Spotify Kids app, which is curated by editors and offers parental controls and data to inform parents about their children’s listening history. The app is only available as part of the Premium Family subscription (€17.99 per month or approx. $18.40).
Where is the money?
Commercial children’s radio stations earn money from advertising — both on-air and on-display — and sponsorship. Some also run their own shops and, in some cases, act as book or music publishers. As Greece’s Kids Radio has already shown, this type of station has excellent potential for creating events around its listeners.
Fun Kids also offers subscriptions to its range of podcasts. For £34.99 a year (about $43.30), listeners can skip commercials, and exclusive bonus episodes are available. In Germany, Radio Teddy offers subscriptions to exclusive content, access to its content library and early release of shows, starting at €3.99 (approx. $4.10) per month.
In some cases, creativity has been pushed to new limits. Radio France, for example, has teamed up with publishing house Bayard to create and sell a dedicated radio loudspeaker that offers audio content called Merlin for children aged three to 12. The device includes content from both publishers for €84.90 ($87.00) and offers the possibility of adding paid content from 20 other publishers. Similar devices such as the Yoto Player or Höbert are available in other European markets, often without content from broadcasters — a clear missed opportunity.
It is in the interest of the entire radio industry to nurture the audiences of tomorrow
The three scenarios
The generations expected to become future radio listeners have mostly anecdotal contact with radio. In the long term, the negative consequences are obvious. Like newspapers, radio audiences are aging and dying off without replacement.
Therefore, it is in the interest of the entire radio industry to nurture the audiences of tomorrow. However, individual players have little incentive to invest in a niche audience that is difficult to monetize, at least directly. This conundrum points to three distinct possible scenarios:
- A wishful thinking scenario would be to give up on this audience now and try to bring them to the medium from the big tech players later.
- A low-ambition, low-impact scenario would be to demand that public service broadcasters play this role on behalf of the industry. This scenario would be more likely in countries where commercial services for children are not already available or do not have nationwide distribution.
- The ambitious scenario would be a joint effort by the leading industry players to launch an industry-supported audio platform for children. This could be a “Radioplayer for Kids” that aggregates content from the industry players and commissions from independent producers or editorial partners such as publishers. On-demand content would be the primary way of delivering content, on a show-by-show basis or via curated playlists, with linear services complementing this.
Which of the above potential scenarios or outcomes are you specifically aiming for?
The author is a co-founder and research director at South 180.
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