The author is chair of DRM. Her commentaries are a recurring feature at radioworld.com.

For at least half of the globe’s population — the half enjoying internet access — life now is conceivable only in a digital world.

Work, entertainment, shopping and even personal relationships are dependent on personalization and easy access, reliably a click away.

This has fragmented and affected media like television and cinema (not to mention the printed press). Television or movies require appointment viewing, your full attention and the most precious of commodities: time.

Meanwhile AI is poised to deepen the digital revolution to a degree not seen since the internet was introduced.

These are early days but just as the internet made everyone a journalist or publisher, AI can make them a potential broadcaster and publisher. However, AI is not autonomous, and a kernel of journalistic input and curating is at the heart of any AI content.

The place of digital

Where is radio in the digital world? Firmly in its place, especially with digital platforms like Digital Radio Mondiale supporting all broadcast bands.

In the AI age, digital radio is turning its very lack of perceived sophistication into an advantage. It is relatively inexpensive, easy to use, and available where electricity and connectivity are unstable, unaffordable or nonexistent.

It even offers a screen for internet content with news, education, even “back-channel information” to give broadcasters the audience measurements they crave. And radio screens can be used for visually impaired listeners and people needing emergency warnings in one or several languages.

A radio on standby can be brought to life in times of emergencies while you are asleep. And when you are awake, radio allows for multi-tasking. Radio is a good companion when you are stuck in traffic or driving.

Radio listening in cars is a significant driver of digital radio. According to an Edison study in the U.S., car listening rose from 42% of all over-the-air radio tuning in 2015 to 53% late last year.

Radio, whether digital or analog, remains the friend “in your ear,” bringing companionship, immediacy and trust. While AI creates generalized, bland, often uncontroversial or forgettable content (but lots of it), successful radio positions itself as the provider of localized, friendly and comforting content, all underpinned by trust.

In poll after poll radio is cited as one of the most credible sources of news, information and, as lately demonstrated by DRM, e-learning and emergency warnings.

When broadcasters look at the spreadsheets, they see that healthy profits come when channels excel in four key areas: trust, creativity, targeting and measurement.

Does online always win?

Trust is a very valuable commodity and the reason the government of the U.K. recently announced that it will increase funding for one of the most recognized global news organizations, the BBC World Service.

For supporting access to information and independent journalism across the world it will receive an extra $14 million a year for the next three years, an 8 percent increase on last year’s funding settlement. Not all of this will be for radio, but also hopefully not all online, though the new BBC CEO is a former Google man. He will be aware that while online is dominant, many online channels do not do so well compared with traditional media like terrestrial broadcasts.

Thus, British members of Parliament recently warned the BBC that its “digital-first” strategy has shrunk audiences rather than growing them. After cuts in staffing and budgets (since 2022), radio outputs in 13 languages and TV services in six languages, weekly audiences fell by about 30 million!

They forgot to go online. As a result, instead of rising, the World Service’s digital audience fell 11 percent to 131 million since 2021. For example, in Nigeria, audiences were hit after social platforms deprioritized news content, further cutting visibility for BBC material.

The failure of some online channels to perform can be due to other practical reasons.

A survey by Broadcast Media Africa has uncovered a critical “monetization crisis” facing the continent’s digital media industry. While 61% of media organizations in Africa have launched Over-The-Top (OTT) streaming platforms, a staggering 42% of those currently operating have no revenue model in place, streaming content entirely for free. While mobile money has emerged as Africa’s dominant payment rail — used by 68% of Africans as their primary payment method — only 32% of African OTT platforms accept it. It seems that the issue now is not technology but monetization itself, which has become the top priority for the industry.

Here is the digital dilemma

Online or terrestrial? AI would immediately reply with “both.” That isn’t wrong but circumstances are always an extra factor.

In troubled times, the super-technologized Japanese public broadcaster is relaunching shortwave for the Middle East, at least temporarily. Singapore, another highly technological society, has a healthy radio sector that is flourishing even in analog after a failed attempt to adopt DAB. Radio in Singapore has become a $133 million business annually.

Radio is accessible at any time, with live broadcasts running around the clock and without requiring screens or our eyes. Even TikTok is back to radio; the partnership between iHeartMedia in the USA and TikTok, announced last fall, is taking shape with the launch of “TikTok Radio from iHeart.”

The introduction of radio digital terrestrial distribution — using open DRM, DAB or proprietorial HD Radio in the USA — is increasingly becoming a priority. Digital distribution is not just transmitters and encoders; it also means providing rich digital content to audiences. And digital content can be enhanced, reformatted, analyzed and optimized with AI.

It has been said by wise men like Marshall McLuhan that every new medium absorbs the previous ones without eliminating them. An excellent description for digital radio.

While listening in central London to a DRM transmission from my native Romania, in perfect audio, I am even more convinced that digital radio will preserve its unique space by providing audio, information, localism and imagination.

The post What a Beautiful Digital World appeared first on Radio World.

U.K. media regulator Ofcom said 100 small-scale DAB digital multiplexes have now been launched nationally under a program that began about four years ago.

“Small-scale DAB provides a low-cost way for local commercial, community and specialist music services to take to the digital airwaves,” it said.

ExeDAB, serving East Devon, is number 100. It is run by commercial station Radio Exe and community broadcaster Phonic FM. “It brings a variety of additional digital radio services to the towns of Honiton and Sidmouth, including Devoncast Radio and Sid Valley Radio.”

Ofcom quoted its Director of Broadcast Licensing and Program Operations Paul Mercer saying the launch “marks another major milestone meaning that even more listeners can benefit from local, diverse content, as well as boosting the local economy.”

Ofcom has also awarded small-scale DAB multiplex licenses to serve Armagh, Derby, Guildford, Woking, Weymouth, Dorchester and Bridport.

And it said it is consulting on a request by TorDAB Ltd. to change the area to be served by the Torbay small-scale radio multiplex service.

The post Ofcom Notes Launch of 100th Small-Scale DAB Multiplex appeared first on Radio World.