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ftm Radio Page - week ending February 14, 2020

Everything changes with age, including media preferences
happy people listening

Radio broadcasters in Finland marked World Radio Day (February 13) with a flurry of facts and figures. World Radio Day is the annual UNESCO recognized celebration of all the good things radio broadcasting brings to happy listeners. Last year, the United Nations (UN) World Happiness Report ranked Finland the happiest country in the world. About two-thirds of Finns - 3.4 million - listen to radio every day.

A report prepared by Finnpanel showed the average Finn listens to radio two hours and 40 minutes each day and “other audio” 43 minutes. By age group, time spent listening increases with age. The youngest listeners reported - 9 to 24 year olds - tune-in just under an hour (58 minutes) a day. In the middle, 25 to 54 year olds are listening two hours and 14 minutes per day on average. Older folks, 55 years and older, are listening three hours and 59 minutes per day. (See more about media in Finland here)

Pubic broadcaster YLE Radio Suomi, a general interest channel, has the most listeners, 31.3% of listeners 9 years and older. Commercial channel Radio Nova follows with 10.7%. YLE Radio 1 is next with 8.7%. Channel preference shifts with age group. Radio Suomipop, Radio Nova and NRJ most popular with the 9 to 24 year olds. Listeners 25 to 54 years prefer Radio Suomipop, Radio Nova and Radio Rock. Older folk are most attracted to YLE Radio Suomi, YLE Radio 1 and Radio Nova.

Online radio is largely the domain of the YLE Areena portal, which offers podcasts. Commercial broadcasters also offer online radio services.

Arts channel saved by heavy-weight intervention
"good for mental wellbeing"

The flap in New Zealand over replacing a public radio arts channel with one focused on “youth” seems to have run its course. Prime ministers, current and former, opera sopranos and everybody in between weighed in on the announcement last week that the Radio New Zealand Concert channel would be dumped from FM distribution. The Radio New Zealand board “backed down,” said New Zealand Herald (February 11) after Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern pushed regulator to find “unused FM broadband spectrum.”

Radio New Zealand (RNZ) chief executive Paul Thompson announced the change last week (February 5). RNZ Concert would leave the FM platform for an AM/MW channel and the internet. The channel’s 17 person staff would be made redundant in March as the reborn RNZ Concert would be just music. Mr. Thompson waxed philosophical: “We just don't have enough connection with younger New Zealanders,” quoted by stuff.co.nz (February 5). Intended to launch in August would a semi-automated non-stop pop music channel.

The first round of criticism, expectedly, came from New Zealand’s commercial broadcasters, not happy to see a non-commercial competitor on the FM platform. "We note that there are already many networks operating in New Zealand that service youth music audiences," said NZ Radio Broadcasters Association chief executive Jana Rangooni. "While it's true RNZ is non-commercial, the networks it operates with taxpayer funding compete for audiences which has an impact on New Zealand's commercial networks.”

But the prevailing narrative had nothing to do with a new pop music service or protecting commercial broadcasters. "There is a large body of research to show that music is good for mental wellbeing," said University of Otago composition professor Anthony Ritchie, quoted by Otago Daily Times (February 7). "This decision will have an extremely bad effect on those listeners.”

RNZ Concert has been on-the-air since 1933. More recently it has focused on live performances across classical music, jazz and world music. A decade ago efforts to eliminate the channel were rebuffed.

Once again, surveys show radio listening is local
automobile as platform

The digital migration working group (DigiMig) of Swiss media regulator Bakom/Ofcom released (February 7) its latest report on radio listening by platform. DigiMig has surveyed Swiss radio listeners on their platform preferences since 2014. The latest semi-annual report shows little difference from similar data from elsewhere. FM usage is falling to digital platforms, DAB+ and online.

In Switzerland as a whole, 37% use the DAB+ platform “most,” 32% using FM then 31% using online platforms. As usual, there are regional differences. FM is most used in the Italian-speaking region, where powerful Italian channels boom across the border. Online is preferred in the France-speaking part. Also, radio listening in automobiles remains in the FM domain. (See more about digital radio here)

Broadcasters in the Swiss-German speaking region as well as public broadcaster SSR-SRG have been ardent DAB supporters, for different reasons. Less enthusiastic have been broadcasters in other regions. All Swiss broadcasters - and Bakom/Ofcom experts - paid considerable attention to the fallout from FM shutoff in Norway. The SSR-SRG seems to be hedging bets by investing in mobile offerings.

When FM broadcast concessions expired - en masse - last autumn the regulator simply renewed them all until 2024. That has become the de facto shut-off target for FM broadcasting. The Swiss government and DAB support groups have mounted publicity campaigns over several years promoting the DAB platform.

Radio Page week ending February 7, 2020
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Radio Page week ending January 31, 2020
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Radio Page week ending November 22, 2019
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Radio Page week ending October 4, 2019
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Radio Page week ending September 27, 2019
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Radio Page week ending July 26, 2019
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Radio Page week ending July 19, 2019
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Radio Page week ending July 12, 2019
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Radio Page week ending June 28, 2019
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Radio Page week ending June 21, 2019
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Recently added radio audience figures and resources

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