PSB Youth Channel Plans in Bavaria Stir Private Broadcasters
Go To Follow Up & Comments

Michael Hedges February 9, 2006

Europe’s public radio broadcasters have discovered a new and unexpected audience: young people. When Bavaria’s public broadcaster announced plans to launch its version of youth radio, private broadcasters cried foul.

Bayerischer Rundfunk (Bavarian Broadcasting – BR) General Director Thomas Gruber announced plans Monday (February 6) to launch a channel aimed at 14 to 29 year olds, first on digital frequencies (DAB) then, later, borrowing FM frequencies from it’s classical music channel BR4. There are no available FM frequencies in Bavaria. The channel will launch in 2007.

“A youth channel from BR would place the economic basis of Bavarian private radio broadcasters in question,” quickly snapped private broadcaster federation (Verband Privater Rundfunk und Telekommunikation – VPRT) vice president and Antenne Bayern General Director Karlheinz Hörhammer. Antenne Bayern, owned by RTL, is arguably the most financially successful German private broadcaster.

BR’s announcement followed by a week a Verbandes Bayereicher Lokalrundfunk (VBL) executive committee meeting with State Minister Eberhard Sinner on FM frequency planning in Bavaria. VBL, the Bavarian local radio association, opposed FM allocations for BR’s youth channel and referred to the plan as “expansionist.”

BR is the last German public service broadcaster to introduce dedicated channels for young people.

“For this age group there are (in Bavaria) small channels, exclusively music with, content wise, few exciting contributions,” explained BR radio director Johannes Grotzky, quoted in the Munich daily Merkur. Grotzky also mentioned that classic music radio fans might prefer DAB over FM for quality reasons anyway.

Once the exclusive domain of private, commercial radio, youth channels are all the rage among PSBs. The reason is simple: it’s working.

In Germany, Eins Live, n-Joy, Das Ding, and Fritz are proven audience grabbers. Scandinavian PSBs each offer successful youth channels, and they are found in France – Le Mouv’ – Belgium – Studio Brussels – and Switzerland – Couleur 3 and DRS 3. New PSB youth channels are popping up, in Latvia and the Czech Republic. Of course, the iconic PSB youth channel is BBC Radio 1.

VPRT fears the launch of another PSB youth channel on DAB will ultimately lead to assigning scarce FM frequencies to the public broadcaster, which was the case with n-Joy and Eins Live.

Radio PSBs have wrung their hands for years over aging audiences and the seeming incompatibility of public radio and young audiences attracted to hit music from commercial broadcasters. The trend for commercial radio in recent years has been narrowing music formats, complimented with little other content than ads. PSBs have successfully played to their strengths, emphasizing local music and local information. And this variety and content seems to have certain appeal to the iPod generation.

ftm Follow Up & Comments

Youth station DJs fired - ‘too old’ - August 8, 2007
Public broadcasting jobs in Germany are not jobs for life any more. Too old and you’re out at youth channel Radio Fritz....MORE