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Radio broadcasters are united in their claim to request prominence for their services on digital audio platforms and devices. Prominence means offering users easy access to radio services, often in a privileged position, versus similar audio services. This typically refers to devices such as smart speakers and in-vehicle entertainment services, although it could also apply to audio aggregators on all kinds of digital devices.
This request makes sense when considering how radio listening is changing. Sales of standalone radio devices have decreased in most Western markets in the last few years. We have witnessed this long-term trend even in markets transitioning to DAB+, requiring listeners to switch devices. As a result, the number of households with no radio devices is increasing. In many others, the only remaining radio tuner is in the family’s vehicle.
Smart speakers often replace standalone radio devices, and radio listening shifts from broadcasting to online platforms. In Switzerland, 40% of time spent listening to radio is online, reaching 35% in the Netherlands and 26% in the United Kingdom. But competition in smart speakers is much bigger than in radio devices, nearly infinite. Consequently, being one of the first options listeners find in these devices makes a huge difference.
Prominence is not a new issue. Most radio broadcasters have been aware of its importance for a few years. Their usual approach has been lobbying digital manufacturers and service providers. But knocking on the door of Amazon, Google, Apple, Sonos, or vehicle makers is a tough task for radio stations, notably small ones. This task has often been delegated to national industry associations and trade bodies such as Radioplayer.
The regulatory path to prominence
The recently approved Media Act in the United Kingdom has secured findability in smart speakers — a related concept to prominence — for radio services operating with a license, bypassing the traditional industry approach of negotiating this prominence directly with device manufacturers.
This act mandates that voice-activated connected audio devices must include and make easily accessible U.K.-licensed radio services. The goal is to ensure listeners can find and access radio content without additional costs or barriers. The legislation specifically targets simulcasts of licensed radio stations, which should be made available on specific voice-activated connected audio devices at no cost to the radio stations. Moreover, such devices will not be permitted to interrupt radio station transmissions.
By passing this law, British lawmakers aim to promote the accessibility of local content, ensure that emergency broadcasts and public safety announcements via radio can reach a significant number of users independently of their listening platform, and help preserve British culture and media by giving local services a competitive edge on global platforms. They believe this is the right approach to preserve the broadcast ecosystem even in a hypothetical post-broadcast world.
The regulatory path to prominence is limited to a few markets and is not yet considered in most of them.
In Australia, a Senate committee recently recommended prioritizing the implementation of radio prominence on devices such as smart speakers. The trade body Commercial Radio & Audio is already pushing to extend this requirement to vehicle dashboards.
Indeed, the regulatory path to prominence is limited to a few markets and is not yet considered in most of them, sometimes because priorities sit elsewhere, often because nobody has made the case for it.
Previous regulatory interventions in radio markets have tackled prominence issues. In the European Union, the European Electronic Communications Code has required that all radios in new vehicles be capable of receiving and reproducing digital terrestrial radio since the end of 2020. This has boosted the availability and penetration of DAB+ services. China has recently announced a similar requirement to support digital broadcasting in vehicles. In the U.S., an act that would require all new motor vehicles to include an AM tuner has been introduced in the Senate.
Market or regulation?
If prominence is seen as a relevant tool to future-proof the accessibility of free-to-air radio services, counterbalancing ongoing technological disruptions and market dynamics that could otherwise diminish their visibility and availability over time, it would be wise to combine negotiations with industry players and advocacy targeting policymakers.
While negotiations about prominence with hardware makers have offered mixed results, the radio industry must be more vocal in regulatory forums and processes about the prominence of its services.
Reading the context is also crucial. The debate on radio’s prominence parallels a similar debate regarding licensed TV services in smart TVs. Strategically, using the momentum created by this debate and joining efforts with TV broadcasters could ease the path toward prominence.
The author is a co-founder and research director at South 180
