More than ever, radio faces fierce competition in its efforts to convince listeners to listen to it, at a time when platforms offering content intended to stimulate our hearing are multiplying. However, the survival of this medium represents “a real cultural issue”, particularly in Quebec, notes one of the authors of a study that examines the subject.
In 2024, Canadians will spend 45 minutes more listening per day to radio and audio content than in 2012, according to the results of various surveys cited in the study Radio’s new clothes, led by the HEC Montréal Media Hub. The 82-page document, released Monday, is based on some 60 interviews with broadcaster executives and experts from North America, including Canada, and Europe.
At the same time, the range of content available to listeners has increased tenfold with the arrival of, among other things, podcasts, audio books and streaming music platforms such as Spotify and Apple Music. In this context, radio stations are seeing an increasing share of their listening time fly away, to the benefit of competing platforms. Because, in the end, there are only 24 hours in a day, recalls the director of the HEC Media Department, Sylvain Lafrance, in an interview with The duty.
“Radio is not threatened, but it could face much greater competition and new forms too,” notes the expert. According to this study, 86% of Canadians still listen to AM/FM radio on a weekly basis, which is 6% more than the average noted in the United States.
However, the number of minutes Canadians tune in to traditional radio daily is declining, a situation that has something to do with the fact that radio now faces fierce competition in the passenger compartment of cars, where it once had the quasi-monopoly of our attention, in addition to the now antiquated CDs. According to a survey conducted this year and cited in this university study, 26% of North Americans own a vehicle equipped with a connected dashboard offering many options other than traditional radio, such as listening to audio books or music. continuously.
Unlike television, moreover, the audio industry is much more competitive, in particular because the regulatory and financial obstacles to the production of content of this type are less present, notes Mr. Lafrance. It is indeed much less expensive and complex to produce a podcast than a television program, he illustrates. “It’s all of this that has made radio into a new ecosystem, and we have to make sure that the leaders of this industry understand that and create new alliances, business models that survive this transition. », notes the expert.
A cultural issue
The study also shows that the decline in the time devoted by listeners to traditional radio, to the benefit of options offered by digital giants, among others, has caused Canadian broadcasters to lose $518 million in advertising revenue in l span of 10 years. However, the survival of the radio poses “a real cultural issue”, particularly in Quebec, where it remains an important vector of local information in French, in addition to offering a showcase for local artists, notes Mr. Lafrance. .
The study also shows that young people under 25 consume more audio content on a daily basis than the older population. They are however “very permeable to English content, so it is not certain that they will listen to our Quebec content”, underlines the expert. “And that is a real challenge,” adds the professor, who asks the public authorities to pay more attention to the measures to be taken to support traditional radio and the local information it broadcasts.
“A media that is so important in our daily lives risks weakening to the benefit of major American competitors, so there is a real reflection to be had on that,” says the co-author of the study, who led the latter with his colleague Louise Hélène Paquette.
There are several options available to broadcasters wishing to retain listener interest. In fact, several in Quebec offer podcasts that are particularly popular with 18 to 34 year olds. “All of the executives interviewed ranked podcast production as the core innovation. For them, the podcast represents a new form of expression different from live radio, having the possibility of reaching new audiences”, notes the study.
Some radio stations have decided to rely on local information to attract the attention of their listeners, while others broadcast online video content to accompany certain segments of their programs. And broadcasters are beginning to leverage artificial intelligence to increase the ability of some stations to generate content.
“Digital has led to a complete metamorphosis of technologies, broadcasting platforms, uses, so broadcasters must take this into account if they wish to maintain their market share in a market that is much more fragmented than before”, summarizes Sylvain Lafrance.